


Home (and the People who Make It)

by cairistiona13



Series: Home [1]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Best Friends, Car Accidents, Children, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Dubious Morality, Family Bonding, First Kiss, Fluff, Friendship, Het, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, Injury, M/M, Military, Military Homophobia, Old Married Couple, One-Sided Relationship, Parent-Child Relationship, Past Character Death, Past Relationship(s), Producer Lee Jihoon | Woozi, Producer Min Yoongi | Suga, Producer Park Chanyeol, Romantic Friendship, Same-Sex Marriage, Single Parents, Slice of Life, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Snippets, Underage Drinking, mentioned dubious consent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-03
Updated: 2017-12-03
Packaged: 2019-02-10 06:59:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 35,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12906609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cairistiona13/pseuds/cairistiona13
Summary: At 24 years old, Chanyeol learns that he has a daughter, and everything changes—for both him and his flatmate and best friend Kyungsoo.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to TK and Cata! :D  
> Some ages have been tampered with. Sunny and Jei are obviously older, and Jinsol and her friends are obviously younger, though their bandmates are generally the correct age. Jinsol’s classmates are idols and rappers (mostly from High School Rapper) born between 2000 and 2002, including TheEastLight., TWINKLE, gu9udan, PRISTIN, APRIL and MOMOLAND, etc., but NCT Dream are a little older, and targeted to their demographic. Bitto is now Sunny’s brother. Just go with it. :P  
> Also western schooling (although it starts in March, because I can), just because I’ve used western ages too. In Korea, Jinsol would already be about eight when they first meet her.
> 
> Note: As there has been a lot of confusion, Jinsol is the maknae from APRIL, not LOONA's Jinsoul. LOONA are to come later......

“Remember the girl you used to know back in high school? Sunny? She just passed away in a car accident, along with her sisters. They left behind four small children between them. Isn’t that awful? Imagine losing all your daughters at once…” his mother had told him one morning, her voice full of anguish.

Lee Sunkyu, more affectionately known as Sunny, was Chanyeol’s first love. He had been sixteen and still years from finishing high school when he first met her; she was twenty-one and at a Performing Arts College studying dance. She was vibrant and knowledgeable and she didn’t mind that he was a gangly teenager still trying to get used to his new height after his growth spurt.

She had taken him to a college party on their first date. It was the first time Chanyeol had ever had soju, and he had loved how grown-up it made him feel. It was like she was treating him as an adult instead of a sixteen year old, and he treasured it.

She had kissed him on their second date; his first kiss with tongue. She’d taught him how to curl his tongue around hers, how to fight for dominance. She never gave it to him, but he gave as good as he got.

She had given him a blowjob on their fourth date. He had never felt anything like it before—her hot, wet mouth surrounding him, moving enticingly in a way that encouraged him to get off faster than he ever had before. She hadn’t let him return the favour, but he probably wouldn’t have known how anyway.

Chanyeol had been seventeen the only two times they had had sex. Both times they had been partying, in the house of an older college friend of Sunny’s. They had stumbled down the corridor to an empty bedroom and fallen into the bed, ridding themselves of their clothes as they did so. A week later they’d done it again.

Chanyeol doesn’t remember much about the sex; it was wet, quick, and sloppy, and neither of them had full capacity at the time. But he’d liked it enough, what he remembered of it. Enough that, two years later, and sober, he had slept with another girl, who had provided the condom. He doesn’t remember what her name was, but it had been great, built off the back of his experience with Sunny.

It hadn’t been with Sunny, because a month or two after they’d had sex the second time, she’d fallen off the face of the earth. She’d dropped out of university, changed her phone number, and deleted all her social media accounts. When Chanyeol tried to contact her family, they told him that she was safe but that she wanted a new life. He wasn’t to contact her again.

He hadn’t. He’d sometimes considered it, but he’d always stopped himself. And now she was dead.

“That’s absolutely awful,” he had replied, because it was.

Internally, he was wondering if she’d got married, and if she was one of the girls who had had a child. She must have been in her mid-twenties; easily old enough to be married and have a kid. If she did, they’d be some other guy’s problem. He wonders if she was happy with the other guy. He wonders if she’d vanished because of him.

Chanyeol wasn’t sure if sending his condolences to her parents would be welcomed, so he didn’t, instead just posting to his Instagram with a photo of the two of them that he’d kept the past six years. Sunny was beautiful and vivacious in the photo, her eyes bright and shining, and he felt like it was a good tribute to her. _RIP. You will be missed, Lee Sunkyu._

\---

The following year passed quickly, without him thinking too much about Sunny and her family, her nephews and nieces and potential children.

He graduated from university, and moved from student dorms into shared accommodation with his three best friends from university; Byun Baekhyun, Kim Jongdae and Do Kyungsoo. It made sense to live together; they all liked each other’s company and the rent was much cheaper with four of them squeezed into a three-bedroom flat. Chanyeol and Baekhyun shared a room, because Jongdae worked even worse hours than Kyungsoo, who had threatened to kick both Chanyeol and Baekhyun out of the flat if they made him share, due to their unsightly sleeping habits.

Six months through their first year, Baekhyun moved in with his long-term girlfriend, and two months later Jongdae transferred to a bigger office and moved out to live closer (Chanyeol is pretty sure he has a girlfriend there, too). They still see each other regularly so it isn’t _that_ weird that the house is suddenly down two noise-makers. The third bedroom, now spare, quickly becomes a music studio; both Kyungsoo and Chanyeol have always enjoyed music. Chanyeol likes to compose on his guitar in his free time, and Kyungsoo is always happy to sing for, or with, him. It also helps for work.

Kyungsoo and Chanyeol have always been close; they met in the same halls of residence during their first year at university, and had clicked instantly. They are vastly different; Kyungsoo a lot quieter and more stoic than Chanyeol, who often feels like the life of the party, but they bonded over Marvel films, _One Piece_ , a similar taste in western pop music, and soju—Chanyeol likes peach soju, which Kyungsoo always makes fun of him for, but he always buys it for him anyway. Kyungsoo is probably, is _definitely_ , Chanyeol’s _best_ , out of the three of them, friend, and even though Kyungsoo likes to pretend otherwise, Chanyeol knows he’s probably his favourite, too. Their friendship is so strong that they actually wear matching soundwave rings on their right hands; the chorus of the first song they ever sang together recorded in the waves.

It’s easy living alone with Kyungsoo, who always makes time to have dinner with him or drive him to work. When the four of them had lived together, and they’d all worked on different sides of town, spending dinner together and carpooling to work had been an impossibility.

They have a tradition, the two of them. Every Saturday is movie night; Fridays being sacred for work outings or group outings with the other two. Kyungsoo works on Saturdays, but they both have time in the evenings to spend together. Kyungsoo used to like going to the cinema on his own, when they were still in university, but now they have shared Netflix and Sky Store accounts, and they always manage to find something they both want to watch. It costs less than going to the cinema, and they get to do it in the comfortable privacy of their own shared home, on their nice blue sofa, with cheap bowls of nachos and sweet-and-salty popcorn in front of them.

On one such Saturday movie night, an hour into the newest _Star Trek_ film—not something either of them had been a fan of prior to these films, but which is enjoyable anyway—DΞΔN’s _bonnie & clyde_ starts playing. Kyungsoo wordlessly pauses the TV and Chanyeol scrambles to grab his phone before they start singing along.

He doesn’t recognise the phone number. Not many people ever phone him, to the point he can list them on the fingers of two hands: his mother, his father, Yura, Jongdae, Baekhyun, Kyungsoo, his (stupidly chill) boss Joonmyun. This—this is different.

“Hello?” Chanyeol answers, cautiously.

“Is that Park Chanyeol?” a voice asks. It’s deep, maybe even deeper than Chanyeol’s own.

“Yes,” Chanyeol says, heading out into his bedroom, away from Kyungsoo, so as not to disturb him. “Who’s speaking?”

“I’m Lee Changhyun,” the deep voice says. “You may remember me as Sunny’s youngest sibling.”

“Oh!” Chanyeol says, surprised. “Yes, I remember.”

He had only met Changhyun once; a short thirteen year old with a squeaky voice that hadn’t quite hit puberty yet—nothing like the deep voice speaking to him now. They had only talked for five minutes while waiting for Sunny to get changed; Changhyun had enthusiastically talked about a rapper that he liked, and Chanyeol had shared a few artists that he liked too; Basick, Paloalto, Vasco, Tiger JK, Napper; people who aren’t as well-known as Epik High, Big Bang, Eluphant, Dynamic Duo or Supreme Team. He’d warned the kid to not let his parents hear the swearwords, and Changhyun had assured him they wouldn’t notice.

Changhyun must be nineteen now. Chanyeol wonders if he still listens to K-hip-hop, or if he has other interests now.

“I’m sorry to hear about your sisters,” Chanyeol says, because he feels like he should.

“Yeah,” Changhyun says, his voice a little softer. “That’s—kind of why I’m calling, actually.” He pauses, sucks in breath—it’s probably very difficult for him to talk about it, only a year after losing them. “I had three older sisters, and they all had children when they died. Two were married, and their husbands took over bringing their children up.” He stops, for a moment.

“The last one?” Chanyeol prompts softly.

“We took her daughter in,” Changhyun says. “But my parents are getting old, and they can’t look after Jinsollie the way they used to be able to.” He sighs. “There’s a court battle going on about who she should live with. We want to keep her, of course, but we just can’t look after her as well as we used to. We need a guardian to volunteer.”

This is all very sad, but Chanyeol isn’t entirely sure what it has to do with him.

“Jinsol is six,” Changhyun says, “and therefore she’s old enough for her opinions to be considered. If she can’t stay with us, she wants to live with her father. It’s always better to keep children with family. But she’s never met her father before.”

“Okay,” Chanyeol says, almost a question.

“Jinsol is Sunny-noona’s daughter,” Changhyun says. “And I’m pretty sure you’re her father.”

It doesn’t sink in for a moment, as Chanyeol tries to word a polite response. When it _does_ filter through into his consciousness, Chanyeol almost drops his phone in shock.

“Wait,” he says. “ _What?_ ” His voice cracks at the end. This can’t be happening. He’s _twenty-four_. He _can’t_ have a _six year old_.

He can tell he’s got Kyungsoo’s attention, because suddenly a head pops around the door. “You okay?” he mouths.

Chanyeol has no idea. He shrugs. Kyungsoo smiles reassuringly at him, and then heads to the kitchen. Chanyeol can hear him start to boil the kettle, and smiles, as the routine begins to calm him.

“One day, seven years ago, a little while after I met you, Sunny-noona came home crying. She said she was pregnant and she didn’t know what to do, but that she wanted to keep the baby. Our parents were okay with it, I guess? She was their youngest daughter and the second to get pregnant, but she was twenty-two. It would have been worse if she’d been a teenager,” Changhyun says. “Anyway, the first thing she said was that the father was too young to have to bring a child up, and that she’d rather we didn’t involve him until he was older. You were only seventeen at the time, I think?”

“Yeah,” Chanyeol says, softly.

“So that was why our parents wouldn’t let you talk to her,” Changhyun explains. “Anyway, Jinsol kind of—she kind of looks like you.”

Chanyeol gulps. Changhyun can probably hear down the phone line.

“I know it’s a lot to take in,” Changhyun says. “I’m sorry nobody told you earlier. But you’re our last hope to keep Jinsol in the family. I’m too young, obviously. Do you…would you like to meet her?”

Chanyeol doesn’t know. He doesn’t know if it’d be better to bury his head in the sand and pretend that none of this happened. That he doesn’t have the knowledge that he _may_ have created another life—a life he hasn’t known about for six years.

Would he have wanted to know earlier, that he had a daughter? He doesn’t even know. Maybe his life and his priorities would have changed. Having a baby is a huge thing, a thing that sucks up your life and changes everything important in it. It means that you have no social life, no time for yourself. Maybe he would have put off military service until later, and never gone to university. Or he would have gone, but then had to drop out of university and gone to live with Sunny, bringing Jinsol up together. Maybe Sunny would have made him finish university, especially for the future job security, but they still could have lived together. Bringing up Jinsol on her own—it must have been hard.

But there’s no point in dwelling on what might have been.

“Maybe?” he says. “I’m sorry. This is—this is huge. Do you mind if I sleep on it? Is there a deadline for this?”

Changhyun gives him his phone number. “I’ll be waiting,” he says. “I’ll understand if you don’t want to meet her, but she’ll be sad.”

Chanyeol swallows, his throat dry with guilt, as he hangs up and heads back to sit on the sofa. There’s a teapot on the table, and he doesn’t hesitate to drop his phone on the table and pour himself a cup, trying to soothe his insides with green tea.

“What was that all about?” Kyungsoo asks.

Once Chanyeol thinks he’s calm, he begins. “That was Sunny’s younger brother.”

“Oh,” Kyungsoo says. “Don’t her family want nothing to do with you?”

One of Kyungsoo’s good traits is that he remembers everything Chanyeol’s ever told him. Chanyeol nods, smiling softly. “Apparently she had a kid,” he says. “When Sunny died, she left her all alone.”

“Shit,” Kyungsoo says.

“Apparently she—she might be my daughter,” Chanyeol says, slowly.

“…shit,” Kyungsoo repeats. Chanyeol doesn’t need to look at him to know his eyes are wide.

“She can’t live with her grandparents anymore, so apparently she decided she wants to live with _me_ ,” Chanyeol says.

“ _Fuck_ ,” Kyungsoo says. He’s bringing out the big guns—that must mean he’s _really_ shocked. He doesn’t often swear like this.

“Exactly,” Chanyeol says. He laughs, though without mirth, and then looks around their small flat. “Where would we even keep a child? What would we do with her? How—how am I supposed to…?” He drops his head into his hands. “Soo, I don’t know what to do.”

“You could meet her,” Kyungsoo says. “How old is she?”

“Six,” Chanyeol says, and lets that hang between them for a few moments. There’s a sharp intake of breath from Kyungsoo that Chanyeol agrees with entirely. “Changhyun asked if I want to meet her, but I—that’ll just make it _real_.”

“But she _is_ real,” Kyungsoo says. “She might be your daughter. You can’t ignore her.”

Chanyeol looks up at him with eyes he _knows_ are swimming with unshed tears, because suddenly life has just… _changed_. “Come with me?” he begs.

“She’s just a little girl,” Kyungsoo says. “Don’t be scared of her.”

“Please?” Chanyeol repeats, and Kyungsoo shrugs.

“Okay,” he says. “But I won’t come inside. We don’t need to confuse her.”

Chanyeol supposes that that’s all he can ask for, really.

\---

Jinsol has a round, chubby face, long and wavy dark hair that looks exactly like Chanyeol’s older sister Yura’s did when she was a child, and dark eyes that curve into an eye-smile when Chanyeol walks into the lobby of Sunny’s parents’ house for the first time. 

When Sunny had got pregnant her family had moved to a better suburb; allowing her to live with them until she got settled. She had been living alone when she died, in a flat that has long been repossessed, but her old room in the family home had still been available, and that is where Jinsol has been living.

Chanyeol had sent Kyungsoo for a drive after he dropped him off, not knowing how long he was going to be. It comforts him to know that Kyungsoo is somewhere nearby.

Changhyun is there, and his mother, who smiles softly, sadly, at Chanyeol. “I’ll—I’ll put the tea on,” she says, bustling away, and leaving Changhyun—who is a fairly tall and mature-looking nineteen year old—to supervise.

Chanyeol stands a little awkwardly in the hallway, looking down at the child, in her denim pinafore over a purple t-shirt, half wondering what to do or say. He’s usually good with children—but they’re not potentially _his_.

“Hi!” Jinsol says, grinning up at Chanyeol. Her smile looks remarkably familiar. “I’m Jinsol! I’m six! I like dogs and dolls and football and running and cars and blue!”

Chanyeol smiles, at her excited introduction. “Hello,” he says, carefully, kneeling to be closer to her height. He’s so tall that even kneeling, he’s about her height, and she’s not a particularly short child. She must get that from him, because Sunny was never tall. “I’m Chanyeol.” He says his own name because he feels weird about referring to himself as _Daddy_ , when he’s just not sure about anything yet.

But when he’s closer to her, he can see small features that remind her of his own face—the shape of her nose, which is slightly bulbous at the end, her soft jawline and the puffy cheeks he had retained into middle school. When she moves her hair off her face, his own ears stare back at him—too large for her head.

“Those are my ears!” she says, excited, pointing at his head. “I’ve never seen anyone with ears like this before.”

The kids at school had called him _Dumbo_ , and later _Dobby_ , due to his ears. He hopes Jinsol’s classmates are kinder to her.

“ _Daddy,_ ” Jinsol says, and reaches out slowly to touch him. Chanyeol lets her, staying very still as she traces his nose with her tiny fingers, as if committing the feel of his skin to memory. “Mummy had a photo of you in her purse. She used to show it to me sometimes, and tell me that it was Daddy.”

“Oh,” Chanyeol says, softly, a lump making its way into his throat unbidden. He hadn’t quite realised that, even if Sunny’s family weren’t quite sure, that Sunny and Jinsol would know for sure that she’s his daughter.

Looking at her, it isn’t terribly surprising. With the two of them together, it’s obvious that they’re related, although he can see Sunny in her, in her bright eyes and the curves of her lips.

They all move through to the sitting room when Sunny’s mother finishes making the tea. Jinsol pulls herself up onto the plush floral sofa next to him, sitting as close as she possibly can without sitting in his lap.

“So, are you at university, Chanyeol?” Sunny’s mother begins.

Despite the fact that he’s sitting there in jeans and one of Kyungsoo’s smaller work shirts—Kyungsoo, despite being much shorter than Chanyeol, is actually broader and more solidly built than Chanyeol, so his smaller shirts fit a bit better (it has to be one of Kyungsoo’s shirts, because Chanyeol doesn’t actually have a dress code for work)—it feels like every interview and audition Chanyeol’s ever had before all rolled into one, and, even though he isn’t sure he actually wants the job of full-time single father, he answers all her questions to the best of his ability:

He’d gone into the army at eighteen (probably not long after Jinsol was born, now he thinks about it) and finished with good recommendations. He’d gone on to do an entire university degree in two years and graduated top of his class—unexpected by everyone from his family, who had never expected much from his degree, to his friends, who thought all he did was party—from a fairly respectable, though not SKY, university. He has a stable job not too far away from home, a job that he enjoys with a decent boss who doesn’t require him to go out every single Friday night and drink himself silly with the rest of his (four, not including Joonmyun) co-workers. He has a good support network of reliable and loving family and friends who are always happy to help when asked. He lives in a flat that doesn’t have too steep a rent and that he isn’t going to lose any time soon. He loves kids, and has always wanted one or two when he settles down.

During the interview, Jinsol can’t sit still, picking at her dress, sliding at her socks, tugging at Chanyeol’s sleeves and asking little questions which Chanyeol answers during brief breaks from answering Sunny’s mother (“What’s your favourite animal?” “I like all animals, but my favourites are dogs.” “I like puppies too!”). Eventually, Changhyun leads Jinsol away, even though she kicks up a fuss at leaving _Daddy_. “Come on,” Changhyun says. “Let’s get your Hatchimal. She probably needs a hug today, right?” That gets her attention, and she runs ahead of him, scrambling to get the toy. Chanyeol watches her go, a small smile on his face.

“Do you live alone?”

“No,” Chanyeol explains, “I have a flatmate. He and I share the rent between us, and we’ve both got full-time jobs.”

Sunny’s mother cocks her head at this, and Chanyeol sighs. He hopes Kyungsoo isn’t a deal-breaker. “Two men, sharing a house? Would that be an appropriate environment in which to bring a child up?”

Chanyeol both frowns and bristles at the implication. “He’s the only reason I can afford the place. It’s pretty nice, and in a good part of town. We’re not on the ground floor, but there’s a lift. It’ll be safer, and there’s no chance of her running into the road. And he’s reliable, and good with kids.” Well, he’s not _bad_ with kids, at least, Chanyeol thinks. Kyungsoo doesn’t _hate_ children, or anything.

“Does he understand the situation?” she asks.

“Yeah,” Chanyeol says. “He was the one who drove me here today.”

“Bring him next time,” Sunny’s mother says. “He should meet Jinsol, too, and decide whether he really wants to be involved in bringing up a child.”

Chanyeol nods, trying not to let his surprise show. _Next time_ suggests that he did a good enough job of selling himself that there will be more times. He hasn’t been rejected outright.

He doesn’t get the chance to let his surprise show, because a moment later, Jinsol comes running back into the room, a large white egg in her hands.

“Daddy!” she says, as she runs.

“Careful!” Changhyun calls, running after her. Not a moment later, she trips over the edge of the patterned rug on the floor, and falls forwards towards the table.

Chanyeol’s heart lurches into his throat and he’s out of his seat immediately, reaching out to catch the child under her arms. She clutches the egg close to her chest instinctively, just about managing not to drop or crack it in her hastiness.

“Oops,” she whispers, when she’s stable again, standing on her own two feet with Chanyeol holding onto her shoulders gently.

“You shouldn’t run,” Chanyeol says, kneeling to be closer to her height once again. “Think of the egg. What happens when you drop eggs?”

“They break,” Jinsol says, her voice small.

“Yes,” Chanyeol says. “And then the baby that’s inside won’t be born. You don’t want that, right?”

Jinsol shakes her head, eyes wide with unshed tears.

“And you could get hurt, too. So you should be careful.”

“Okay,” she says, quietly. “Sorry, Daddy.”

“It’s okay,” Chanyeol says. He doesn’t know if it’s okay. This isn’t his house and these aren’t his rules. But—for now, it’s okay. “Just make sure you don’t run again, okay?”

Jinsol nods, and he leans back, finally letting go of her. He settles back on the sofa.

Changhyun and his mother are looking at him with surprised, warm eyes.

“Quick reflexes, Hyung,” Changhyun compliments. It’s the first time he’s used the honorific, and Chanyeol smiles softly.

“I was on the basketball team in school and university,” he explains. “Good thing, too.”

Jinsol scrambles up onto the sofa next to him, and thrusts the egg out towards him. “This is my Hatchimal,” she says. “We have to hatch her, but she doesn’t want to come out when I play with her.”

Chanyeol takes the egg from her carefully. It’s almost the size of Jinsol’s head, and feels a little more solid than he was expecting. Even so, he has large hands; easily as big as the egg, and he tries to hold it as gently as possible. He doesn’t want to break his daughter’s toy, after all. “What do I do?” he asks.

“You can stroke or tap on the egg,” Jinsol tells him, and taps lightly. Moments later, a noise comes from the egg—tapping back. Coloured spots at the front of the egg light up.

Chanyeol is slightly unnerved. He doesn’t understand children’s toys. But he does what Jinsol tells him to; stroking the egg and turning it upside down, and moving it about in his hands. The spots change colour, cycling from red to dark blue to green.

“She doesn’t feel well,” Jinsol tells him, and takes the egg from him, and rubs the bottom until the spots change colour again. Then she tries to hand it back.

“You’ll have to teach me how to look after her,” Chanyeol tells her. “I don’t want to upset her again.”

Jinsol grins.

\---

Eventually, it’s time to go home. Jinsol all but bursts into tears, wrapping her arms around Chanyeol’s legs.

“Don’t go!” she sobs.

“I’ll come back,” Chanyeol tries to reassure her, leaning over to run his hands through her hair in a way he hopes is soothing.

“But that’s not now!” Jinsol whines.

“Jinsollie,” Chanyeol says, already sounding fond after only an afternoon with his daughter. “It’s late, and you have school.” He’s learnt she’s in her second year, and likes running around after footballs during breaks. His little sporty child. “Don’t you like school?”

“Yes,” Jinsol says, smiling through her tears.

“How about you go to school this week and then when I come back next week, you can tell me all about it?”

“Okay!” she says, and reaches up to hug him. Chanyeol only lets his hands wrap around her for a brief moment, before separating them, saying goodbye to Changhyun and his mother, promising to arrange a time with Changhyun, and then heading out.

“How was it?” Kyungsoo asks, when Chanyeol climbs into the passenger seat.

“She’s absolutely my daughter,” Chanyeol says confidently. “And she’s adorable. I’m screwed.”

Kyungsoo just laughs.

\---

Normally, when faced with something this big, Chanyeol would consult his family and see what they suggest. But he hasn’t decided anything yet about Jinsol. He doesn’t know what he wants to do, so he doesn’t want to mention it until he needs their advice. He doesn’t know how his mother would react to finding out that she has a six year old granddaughter. He doesn’t want to bring Jinsol into their life if he’s not able to care for her, and she ends up adopted outside the family.

Instead, he just spends the week working and resolutely _not_ thinking about Jinsol, until the meeting with her on Sunday.

Kyungsoo has already promised to drive Chanyeol to see her again, so Chanyeol springs it on him a little late, leaving him no room to wriggle out.

“Sunny’s mother wants you to come and meet Jinsol,” he says. “She says that way, we all know where we’re at. If we do bring Jinsol into our home, I don’t want to wind up irritating you, or kicking you out because of her. You need to be involved in this decision, too.”

“Oh,” Kyungsoo says, softly, eyes wide.

“That’s okay, right?” Chanyeol asks, surprised by Kyungsoo’s response. “I thought—?”

“No, it’s okay,” Kyungsoo says. “I understand. I’ll come.”

\---

And so, on Sunday, Kyungsoo takes them both to Jinsol’s house, parks, and goes inside with Chanyeol.

“Daddy!” Jinsol greets them, running over to hug Chanyeol.

“Hi Jinsol,” Chanyeol says, kneeling and hugging her back.

It’s when she pulls back that she sees Kyungsoo for the first time, and automatically slides behind Chanyeol, an expression on her face Chanyeol hasn’t seen before (though that’s not surprising). Shyness, he thinks. “Daddy,” she begins. “Who’s that?”

“This is Kyungsoo-oppa,” Chanyeol says. “He’s my best friend, and we live together.”

“Hi,” Kyungsoo says, dropping into a crouch, and waving at her. He’s smiling, but Chanyeol can tell he’s a little uncertain.

“Hi,” Jinsol says softly.

“Do you have a best friend, Jinsol?” Chanyeol asks, standing up and leading them through to the sitting room. Kyungsoo follows, slowly.

“I used to!” she says. “She’s called Somi and she moved schools to a big international school in Seoul, so I don’t see her any more. I have lots of other friends though!”

“Jeon Somi?” Kyungsoo asks.

“Yes!” Jinsol says. “How did you know?”

“I know her dad,” Kyungsoo says. “We could probably go see her.”

Jinsol’s eyes light up, and Chanyeol smiles.

\---

It seems like the moment they sit down on the sofa that Jinsol’s grandmother begins interviewing Kyungsoo—for a job neither of them quite understand.

“So you haven’t yet been to the military?” she asks.

“No,” Kyungsoo says. “My older brother was doing his service when I went off to university. Then I was able to defer it until I graduated. I haven’t been able to do it yet.”

“But you will go soon?”

Kyungsoo shrugs. “Probably.”

Chanyeol knows what he’s thinking; Kyungsoo doesn’t want to go, because he doesn’t think his job will still be waiting for him when he gets out of the army. But he can’t avoid it for much longer. Chanyeol has been expecting the draft notice to arrive at their house for the past year.

“I just don’t want Jinsol to grow attached to you, and for you to just leave. She has problems with people leaving suddenly.”

Kyungsoo frowns. “I can understand that, but I would get some days off. It’s not like she would go twenty-one months without seeing me at all, and she would have her dad.”

Chanyeol wonders when it became confirmed that they were going to bring Jinsol into their home, and then looks at her, curled up in his lap. She’s not paying the slightest bit of attention to the interview going on about her, instead playing with his sleeves a little sleepily.

She’s cute, he thinks, and Kyungsoo is soft. He likes to pretend he isn’t, what with the constant threat of bodily harm, but he is. There’s no way he’d let Chanyeol’s daughter get adopted out of the family.

“So, how long have you and Chanyeol been living together?”

Kyungsoo cocks his head. “Three years, I think? We were in the same dorms at university, and it was natural to move in together afterwards. There were some other guys, but they moved out to live with girlfriends, so it’s just us two.”

“No plans to move out with a girlfriend yourself, then?” she asks.

Kyungsoo, as far as Chanyeol can tell, doesn’t date. He’s never seen him interested in anyone, or go out on dates. Instead, he’s always stayed in with Chanyeol, when he was recovering from a bad breakup, or a bad date, patting his back, feeding him ice cream, and suggesting they watch some bad comedy films. So the idea that Kyungsoo would ever move out to live with a girlfriend seems extremely unlikely to Chanyeol. 

Kyungsoo shakes his head. “Not really, it’s not a priority for me. Plus, I like our place. It’s big enough that we’re not on top of each other, and it’s convenient for work, and with both of us paying the rent’s affordable. We’re not doing too badly, right?” He turns to Chanyeol as he asks, a small smile on his face. Chanyeol nods, smiling back at him.

Chanyeol’s main concern is the bills when Kyungsoo’s in the army. Having to support Jinsol and keep their flat at the same time—that might be tricky. But he thinks his parents, once they find out about Jinsol, might be happy to help too. And it would be less than two years until Kyungsoo came back and—if he couldn’t keep his job—found work to make sure they kept their home. Chanyeol and Jinsol could probably survive for two years.

Chanyeol decides to leave the conversation to Kyungsoo, and to not focus on miserable things until he needs to. Instead, he turns to Jinsol. “How’s your egg?” he asks her softly.

Her eyes widen and she sits up. “She hatched!” she says, voice clearly excited. She slides off Chanyeol’s lap and then reaches out for him, so he takes her small hand and lets her lead him away.

Her room is tidy and small; smaller than Kyungsoo and Chanyeol’s music room. It’s painted blue and covered in posters of My Little Pony characters, some Disney princesses, Pororo, and some other things Chanyeol doesn’t recognise. There are stuffed toys and statues around the room; a few Tobots, some Pororo and Kumamon toys, stuffed Cony and Brown dolls, and a furry blue thing with wings and a horn. It’s this that Jinsol heads over to, and she lifts it and shows it to Chanyeol. “She hatched yesterday! Isn’t she pretty?”

Chanyeol agrees, utterly confused by what animal it is supposed to be, but not wanting to upset her anyway. “Does she have a name?”

“Byul,” Jinsol says, with a smile. “I think she likes the light, so I named her after the stars.”

“I think that’s a very pretty name,” Chanyeol tells her.

“I want to take her to school with me, but Grandma says it’s not a good idea,” Jinsol says.

“She’s right,” Chanyeol says. “She’s safer at home. Also, speaking of school—weren’t you going to tell me about your week?”

Her eyes light up again, and she launches into a story about how her classmate, a girl called Song Yoonjoo, challenged her to a race, and how she won.

“I have the fastest record in the fifty metre race of any of my classmates,” she says, proudly. “And next year I get to move onto the one hundred metre races!”

“That’s my girl,” Chanyeol says, with a grin. “I’m proud of you.”

\---

Kyungsoo relaxes a little the moment Chanyeol leaves the room.

Being here, having this bizarre interview, just tells him that what he’d thought his life was going to be and what it will be are very different things.

Kyungsoo had been upset when Chanyeol had first told him about Jinsol; she was the daughter of Chanyeol’s first love, and he’d always had a sneaking suspicion that the reason Chanyeol had had so few girlfriends during university was that he’d always carried a torch for her, even after she’d walked out of his life. She’s dead now, she can’t come back. But Jinsol is what’s left of her—a reminder of the woman she had been. Chanyeol is definitely going to claim her as his daughter, that’s just the kind of person he is. And Kyungsoo doesn’t want to let Chanyeol become a lonely single dad.

Kyungsoo likes Chanyeol far too much for that.

So Kyungsoo sits through this bizarre interview about possibly becoming another…important person? Flatmate? to a six year old he hadn’t known existed two weeks ago, and then leaves to find Chanyeol and Jinsol the moment Jinsol’s grandmother seems pleased with the answers he’s giving her.

He stands in the doorway of Jinsol’s bedroom, just watching his friend—two months older, and finally seeming like it—play with his daughter on the floor of her bedroom.

“Kyungsoo-oppa,” Jinsol says softly when she sees him, and Kyungsoo smiles at her.

“Hi Jinsol,” he says.

He doesn’t join them, but he does sit at the edge of the room and wait for her to start feeling more comfortable with him. If they are going to bring her into their home, they’ll need that comfort. Jinsol’s grandmother wasn’t wrong about that.

After some time, Jinsol grabs another toy, a stuffed bear, and crawls over, handing it to Kyungsoo. “His name is Joohun,” she says.

It’s a silent request to join in, to play with her, and Kyungsoo takes it.

\---

Once the two of them have confirmed with each other that they would each be happy bringing Jinsol home with them, they agree a trial with Sunny’s family, because they don’t want Chanyeol and Kyungsoo to jump in too quickly. They’ll have Jinsol for a weekend. If all goes well, Chanyeol will start the custody process with Sunny’s family’s lawyer. As he’s not listed on the birth certificate, that will be the first thing to rectify.

The two of them spend the end of the week moving all the equipment from the music studio into Chanyeol’s bedroom, and then setting up the old spare bed in there. Jinsol has a nightlight she uses, so the two of them convert one of the desks the music equipment was on into a bedside table, making sure everything is near a socket.

They get Jinsol’s dietary requirements (no milk, nothing overly spicy, red meat only on special occasions) from her grandmother, and then go shopping to prepare.

Jinsol and her grandmother arrive at their flat on the Friday evening, when they’ve just about managed to finish their last-minute tidying up after getting home from work.

“Do you want to come in?” Chanyeol asks, and Sunny’s mother nods, following them in through the door and removing her shoes in the doorway politely.

He shows them around the house, indicating the kitchen, sitting room, and Jinsol’s bedroom. She seems quite taken with the spare bedding they had managed to find; it is covered in pretty sky blue spirals and swirls, and Chanyeol doesn’t really know why they own such bedding.

“Thank you,” Sunny’s mother says, smiling at Chanyeol. “We really appreciate this. We’ll be back on Sunday evening.”

“I mean, we could take her to school on Monday?” Kyungsoo offers. “Save you the journey over?”

“It’s okay,” she responds. “As long as she’s part of our household, I don’t think any of us could sleep if we didn’t take her to school ourselves.”

“I understand,” Chanyeol says. “We’ll see you on Sunday.”

And then she’s gone, leaving Jinsol behind. Her eyes are wide with excitement, and she comes over to Chanyeol and wraps herself around his stomach. “Daddy!” she says cheerfully.

Chanyeol grins and hugs her back. “Hi Jinsol,” he says. “What do you want to do tonight?”

She detaches herself from him and goes to hug _Oppa_. The surprise in Kyungsoo’s face is obvious, but he hugs back, too.

“Can we watch a film?” she asks, into Kyungsoo’s stomach.

“Sure,” Kyungsoo responds. “Do you like Disney?”

“Yes!” she exclaims, pulling back to look up at him. “Do you have _The Princess and the Frog_? That’s my favourite.”

Kyungsoo grins, toothy. “We _absolutely_ do,” he says. “Come on.” He leads her into the sitting room and settles in front of the TV, flicking through what’s available, and Chanyeol watches them fondly.

\---

After a dinner of bibimbap, though seriously lacking in gochujang and beef, Jinsol yawns.

“Do you want to go to bed?” Chanyeol asks, putting the bowls he’s collected down in the sink.

She nods. “But can I have a bath first?”

Chanyeol blinks, because—oh yeah, hygiene is a thing.

“I can do it myself,” she says, “if you run it. But I need help washing my hair.” 

“Uh, sure,” Chanyeol says. He hasn’t helped a girl have a bath since he was small, and that was his sister, on the days he played dad. But it’s the same principle. Or at least he _thinks_ it is.

“I think Grandma gave me some bubble bath soap,” Jinsol says, and she gets up, heading over to the bag that her grandmother put in the sitting room. She fishes through it and comes out, triumphantly, with some bubble bath mixture. Chanyeol lets out a sigh of relief he hadn’t realised he’d been holding and carries the bag into the bathroom.

He runs the bath for her, making sure it’s not too hot, and then tips in some soap, watching as it froths up. There is baby shampoo in the bag as well, along with her toothbrush and strawberry flavoured children’s toothpaste, and her pyjamas. He sets them all out as she settles in the bath, and then settles on the closed lid of the toilet until she’s ready to let him wash her hair.

It’s fairly easy, running the shampoo through her hair, and quite relaxing. He helps her wash it out, tipping cups of lukewarm water over her head and running his fingers through it, and then wraps a big towel around her when she stands up, and lifts her out of the bath. The whole thing is entirely painless, and he wonders what it would have been like with a younger child—one who is more playful, or brattier, than Jinsol. He vaguely remembers Yura splashing him, when they’d been little, and thinks a quick apology to his mother. Bathing the two of them must have been a nightmare.

But with Jinsol it’s easy, and she dresses herself and lets Chanyeol run a towel over her hair without so much as a peep.

He’s setting up the nightlight beside her bed when she whispers, “Goodnight, Daddy. Goodnight Kyungsoo-oppa.”

Chanyeol turns, as he switches the light on, to find Kyungsoo in the doorway. There’s a small smile on his face.

“Night, Jinsol,” Chanyeol says, and then, impulsively, leans down to kiss her forehead. She falls asleep smiling.

\---

On Saturday, Kyungsoo wakes up to his bed shaking. When he opens his eyes, he’s faced with Jinsol, still dressed in her pyjamas, bouncing on his bed.

“Wake up, Oppa,” she says, and giggles.

“Morning,” Kyungsoo grunts, and then he pushes himself up into a sitting position. He’s suddenly grateful he forgot to fully undress the night before, and is still wearing his t-shirt so she’s not faced with his bare chest at—he checks his alarm clock—7.15am.

“Daddy told me to wake you up, because he says you have work.”

That explains so much. “Yeah,” Kyungsoo says, although, on Saturdays, he doesn’t start until the sensible time of 9am. He’s even awake before his alarm is set to go off.

Jinsol drops into a sitting position on his bed. “He’s making pancakes for breakfast! He wants to know what you want on yours?”

Kyungsoo shrugs, and he turns to swing off the bed, even _more_ grateful that he’s wearing boxers. “I’ll have what you’re having,” he says.

“Yay!” she says, her eyes lighting up, and then she grabs his hand and tugs him out of the room, even as he blinks sleepily at her. The fact she’s already comfortable enough to touch him filters through, but barely.

“Good morning, Soo!” Chanyeol says cheerfully. Kyungsoo grimaces, because Chanyeol was always way too cheerful in the morning.

“Morning,” Kyungsoo grunts, again. He falls onto a chair at the kitchen table, and waits, blearily, for breakfast.

Jinsol appears to be having her pancakes with sliced bananas and chocolate sauce, so that’s what Kyungsoo gets, too. He also gets coffee, when Jinsol gets chocolate milk.

“Why is he having something different?” she whines.

“Kyungsoo needs coffee to function this early in the morning, especially before work,” Chanyeol says. “Don’t worry about him.”

Kyungsoo drops his head onto the table, just about missing his plate of pancakes, and groans. “I hate you,” he says, his voice muffled by the wood. Jinsol just giggles.

\---

The day seems to fly by. Jinsol watches some kids’ cartoons in the morning, both Korean shows and western shows dubbed into Korean, and then Chanyeol takes her to the park just after lunch. Because she’s been so good, they both get melon ice creams from the ice cream stand in the park.

It’s as he’s eating his own ice cream that Chanyeol wishes that Kyungsoo didn’t have to work on Saturdays, because he’d probably enjoy this, too. It’d do him the world of good to go outside, into the fresh air, instead of staying cooped up in his small office.

He tells him that, when Kyungsoo finally gets home from work, partway through _101 Dalmatians_. The younger man doesn’t bother getting changed, just removes his tie and throws it over the back of the sofa, before he collapses next to Chanyeol, his head inches from Chanyeol’s shoulder.

“You really need a break,” Chanyeol continues.

“I’m going to the army soon,” is what Kyungsoo responds with.

Chanyeol blinks at him. That was _not_ what he’d expected.

“It’s not a non-sequitur,” Kyungsoo says. “I’m going to quit my job and take a few weeks off, and then I’m going to go, regardless of when the notice is going to come. You need time to bond with Jinsol, and the sooner I go, the sooner I’ll be back to help.”

“But you love your job,” Chanyeol protests.

“I’ll find something else to do when I come back,” Kyungsoo says, with a shrug. “Maybe I’ll even use that writing degree this time? You never know.” He smiles softly at Chanyeol. “I won’t go until the new school year, if the notice doesn’t come earlier. I’ll still be here for a bit, don’t worry.”

“Okay,” Chanyeol says, softly. “I’ll hold you to that.”

\---

Kyungsoo wakes up on Sunday in the exact same way he had on Saturday, only it’s about 9am, and Jinsol is already dressed.

“I’m going to the 7-11,” Chanyeol says, standing in the doorway. “We’ve run out of some stuff. Like anything at all for breakfast, I didn’t think to get it yesterday. You’ll be okay, right?”

“Yeah,” Kyungsoo says. “You go, Jinsol and I will be fine.”

Kyungsoo shoos Jinsol out of the room so he can get dressed, and then makes himself coffee, before settling down to watch _My Little Pony_ with her. It’s actually not a bad show.

They’re partway through an episode about Jinsol’s favourite character (Scootaloo, because _“She’s so cool!”_ ) when there’s a knock at the door. “Did you forget your keys again?” Kyungsoo grumbles, fondly, even though it’s probably not been long enough to be Chanyeol. He heads over and opens the door and—oh, that’s not Chanyeol at all.

Chanyeol’s mother stands there, a smile on her face. “Good morning, Kyungsoo!” She’s every bit as cheerful as Chanyeol is, and Kyungsoo is grateful he’s woken up a bit. It makes the urge to close the door and curl up on the sofa less strong.

“Auntie?” Kyungsoo asks. “I wasn’t expecting you.”

Chanyeol’s mother sighs, and pats his cheek. “Don’t I keep telling you to call me Mum?” she complains.

“…Ma,” Kyungsoo says, obediently. “Chanyeol’s gone out, but he’ll be back soon, if you want to wait?” He opens the door and lets her in.

She’s removing her shoes in the doorway when she sees Jinsol’s. “Kyungsoo?” she asks, indicating the shoes.

Kyungsoo sighs. This wasn’t how he’d expected her introduction to Jinsol to go.

“Ma, come through to the sitting room, I’ll explain things to you.”

Jinsol turns to face them as they come in the room. When she sees Chanyeol’s mother, she freezes.

“Jinsol, this is Chanyeol’s mum,” Kyungsoo says. “Ma, this is Jinsol.”

Jinsol still looks a little nervous, the way she had when she’d first met Kyungsoo, but the fact the new person is family seems to reassure her. “Hi,” she says shyly, and then she stands and runs to hide behind Kyungsoo, fingers clenched in the back of his sweater. She peeks around his hip a few times, resting her head against his back.

Chanyeol’s mother opens and shuts her mouth, and looks between Kyungsoo and Jinsol a few times. “Who—?”

“So,” Kyungsoo says, “you know Chanyeol was close to Sunny? He was _really_ close to Sunny.” He waves his hand towards Jinsol.

“You don’t mean—?”

“Jinsol is Chanyeol’s daughter,” Kyungsoo says.

Chanyeol’s mother doesn’t say anything for a few moments, and then her eyes start watering. “Oh, my beautiful baby girl,” she says, reaching out towards her. “I thought she looked like Sunny. She looks like Yura, too.”

Jinsol looks up at Kyungsoo, her eyes huge and full of confusion.

“It’s okay,” Kyungsoo reassures her, resting his hand on her hair. “You can trust Grandma.”

“Call me Granny!” Chanyeol’s mother says, her arms still outstretched towards Jinsol.

Jinsol creeps out from behind Kyungsoo and takes the three steps towards _Granny_. “Hi,” she repeats, when she’s only a couple of steps away.

“Hi Jinsol,” Granny says, kindly. She touches Jinsol’s shoulders lightly. “You do look a lot like your parents.” Still gentle, she hugs Jinsol.

Once released, Jinsol settles on the sofa next to her newfound grandmother and Kyungsoo stops the TV, so Jinsol can go back to the episode after. “So you’re my Granny?” she says softly, as if to confirm.

“I’m your Daddy’s mother,” Granny agrees. “Is he treating you well?”

Jinsol’s eyes light up, and she nods frantically. “I love Daddy!” she enthuses.

Kyungsoo smiles softly. Children are so easy to please.

“Good!” Granny says. “How about Kyungsoo? Is he as nice as Daddy?”

Jinsol nods, just as frantically.

“Does he make a good Daddy too?”

Kyungsoo almost doesn’t notice the words that Chanyeol’s mother had used, and when he does, they hit him suddenly. “Wait—” he begins, but Jinsol’s still nodding.

“Yup!” she says loudly, unintentionally covering his protest.

“Inside voice, Jinsol,” Kyungsoo mutters.

“Good,” Granny repeats, smiling at Kyungsoo, and Kyungsoo realises she is never going to let this one slide. “You’re a lucky girl, Jinsol,” she says. Jinsol beams.

Jinsol doesn’t really seem to understand what she’s insinuated though, because she turns to Kyungsoo and says, “Kyungsoo-oppa, can I have some juice, please?”

“Sure,” Kyungsoo says. “Ma, do you want some tea?”

“That would be lovely,” Granny says, and Kyungsoo heads off to the kitchen.

A few moments later the front door opens. “I’m home!” Chanyeol calls, and Kyungsoo can hear Jinsol run out to him.

“Daddy!” she shouts as she runs, and then Kyungsoo can hear a collision.

“Oof!” A moment later, “Jinsol, what did we say about running indoors?”

“I’m not carrying an egg this time!” she responds petulantly, and Kyungsoo can’t stop himself from grinning.

Neither can Chanyeol’s mother, if the smile on her face is anything to go by. “So cute,” she coos, turning to Kyungsoo as he puts the teapot down on a mat on the coffee table. “What a lovely child you both have.”

Kyungsoo feels his face heat up. Chanyeol, thankfully, doesn’t notice her choice of words. “Mum! I wasn’t expecting you today. Have you met Jinsol?”

“I have,” she says. “She’s so pretty!”

“She is,” Chanyeol says, and he grins, hugging his child, and Kyungsoo feels something in his lower stomach tingle.

\---

During the next week, Chanyeol files a petition for paternity with the courts. It’s simple; just an update to Jinsol’s birth certificate claiming to be the father. As he has the support of Sunny’s parents, it isn’t protested, and instead goes through easily enough. And then they just need to petition the court for custody.

Thus begins a new set of court proceedings for Jinsol, furthering the current one in a more helpful direction. In the meantime, whilst they wait for a court date, Jinsol alternates between living with her grandparents and living with Chanyeol and Kyungsoo, who get rather quite used to having a six year old running around the house in the early mornings.

It is partway through the trial of waiting that they have her during the week for the first time, as her grandparents have to go away for something. It only changes their routine slightly; Kyungsoo drives Chanyeol to work, and then on to Jinsol’s school. The teachers there are concerned that he’s not her usual guardian, and it’s only Jinsol, who calmly says, “He lives with me and Daddy,” that makes them not panic and phone her grandparents immediately.

“Her grandparents are on holiday,” Kyungsoo explains, although he’s not actually sure that’s the reason they’re away. “I’m looking after her.”

“Her dad?” her class teacher asks, and Kyungsoo can’t work out if she’s asking if he is her dad, or if she’s asking where her dad is. He shrugs. He can’t, quite frankly, be bothered.

He’s grateful for his weird hours when he picks her up in the afternoon; even though she stays after school to do sports, it’s still before a normal working day would end. Chanyeol wouldn’t be able to pick her up, and he wonders what will happen when he’s away at the army. Maybe one of her grandmothers will be able to pick her up?

The teachers seem to recognise him that afternoon, and they begrudgingly let him take her home. He understands their concerns, but it doesn’t make it any easier.

He knows that Jinsol has expressed an interest in transferring to the same International School as Somi. She doesn’t mind leaving her friends behind, she just wants to be able to be able to join the track and football teams at her new school. Kyungsoo thinks that will probably be easy enough to arrange.

And at a new school, he and Chanyeol can drop Jinsol off without there being any suspicions or problems. They just need to explain their schedule and who will drop her off and pick her up when, and that’ll be fine. Things will be sorted.

They just need to have full custody of her first.

\---

Winter is the season of birthdays and celebrations in the DoPark household; Chanyeol’s birthday in late November, Jinsol’s in early December, Christmas, and then Kyungsoo’s birthday in early January. They spend most remarkably quietly, avoiding Baekhyun and Jongdae’s insistence on going out to celebrate. It’s only Christmas that they do anything else; both boys spending lunch with their families and Jinsol spending it with her grandparents. They did a bit more for Jinsol’s birthday, though, bringing her a cake and getting her some new stuffed toys, including a penguin she names after Kyungsoo (he doesn’t understand why). It’s not every day you turn seven. 

It’s after Kyungsoo’s birthday that the first trial date comes.

And, mere days later, Kyungsoo’s draft notice arrives.

He stares at it for some time.

“I’ll go after Jinsol’s started her new school,” he says, with a sigh. “You’ll be alright, won’t you?”

“Yeah,” Chanyeol says. “We’ll be fine. My parents will help support us, and look after Jinsol when I can’t. Same with Sunny’s parents.” He pauses. “What about yours?”

Kyungsoo sighs. “I haven’t even told them yet. You know what they’re like. Mum will get overly excited and assume Jinsol’s mine, and then she will freak out because I’m not married.” He shrugs. “I mean, once they know, and Mum’s calmed down a bit, I’m sure they’ll be happy to help keep you afloat.”

Chanyeol shrugs too. “Okay,” he says. Kyungsoo is almost surprised when he doesn’t comment on the whole Jinsol-being-his thing. Maybe he’s not bothered about it, either? “Just let me know when you’re inviting them so we know we’ve got Jinsol.”

“Will do,” Kyungsoo promises, and then whips out his phone.

\---

Kyungsoo’s mother falls for Jinsol immediately, reaching out and patting her cheeks the moment she moves out from behind Kyungsoo. “Oh, look at you!” she says. “What a pretty granddaughter I have.”

“Mum,” Kyungsoo says, with a sigh.

“Are your dads treating you well?” his mother says, cheerfully, and Kyungsoo really wishes people would stop insinuating she’s _both of theirs_. He’s just…Jinsol’s dad’s best friend. By thinking she’s _theirs_ , it suggests they’re together, him and Chanyeol. And they’re not. Chanyeol’s straight.

He just hopes it doesn’t get out to the military. Gay men are inevitably dishonourably discharged, and Kyungsoo doesn’t want to be discharged for some misunderstanding about him living with another man and his daughter.

“Yes,” Jinsol says, and Kyungsoo buries his head in his hands. It would help if Jinsol would stop _agreeing_.

Jinsol is still shy, but after a while, she lets Kyungsoo’s mother stroke her hair and play with her. But when it gets all too much for her, she climbs onto Kyungsoo’s lap, even though she’s getting big at seven years old, and curls up against him, her hand clutching his jumper tightly. He smiles softly down at her and wraps an arm around her waist to hold her in place.

“I think you made Jinsol tired,” he says, looking up at his mother, who has wide eyes.

She fumbles around in her handbag until she finds her phone. “Oh, stay like that!” she commands, and then Kyungsoo hears multiple clicks of the camera button. “Oh, so cute!”

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes.

\---

In early February, Chanyeol heads to courtrooms and Kyungsoo quits his job, in preparation for enlisting. During a quiet discussion after dinner, Kyungsoo tells Chanyeol he’s going to go in March. Due to being less busy, Chanyeol gets Kyungsoo to look after Jinsol a lot more, though they both try to make sure she doesn’t fall into a routine of expecting him to always be there; that would be unfair. It’s like Sunny’s mother had said; she would get used to Kyungsoo’s presence, and then he wouldn’t be there anymore for twenty-one months. So they explain military service to her in the simplest possible terms.

“Kyungsoo will be back at different times during the year,” Chanyeol says, trying to reassure her. “And we can send him letters.”

“I’d like that,” Kyungsoo agrees.

“But why do you have to go?” Jinsol whines, climbing up onto Kyungsoo’s lap. “I don’t want you to go.”

Chanyeol watches, fondly, as his daughter curls up against his best friend, and her other favourite person.

“I know, and I’m sorry, but I have to go,” Kyungsoo says. “But Daddy will be here, and I’ll come back and see you, and you can tell me all the things that happen while I’m not here. And Chanyeol is right; you can even tell me in letters!”

“So I can send you letters whenever I want?” she asks, her eyes wide. “Will you send me any back?”

“If I can,” Kyungsoo says. “I don’t want you to forget me!”

“I would never do that!” She turns so that she’s hugging him, her small arms around his neck. He holds her as well, patting her back gently. “I could never forget Kyungsoo-’pa.”

“Good!” Kyungsoo says. “Or I will turn into a monster and come after you!” His nimble fingers come up and he starts tickling her.

She bursts into giggles, and Chanyeol smiles, wider. It’s moments like these where he thinks Kyungsoo would make a good father. Before Jinsol, he had never seen Kyungsoo act like this, not with Seungsoo’s kids, or with any children he’d see in the university crèche, or just around town. Chanyeol has always loved kids, and likes cooing at cute ones, but Kyungsoo has never really cared (despite what Chanyeol told Sunny’s mother). But Jinsol? It’s easy to see that Kyungsoo adores her, and she adores him.

Chanyeol knows she’ll miss Kyungsoo. But, frankly, so will Chanyeol.

After Kyungsoo goes, it will be a long time before home feels normal.

\---

Spending time with Jinsol, making sure she’s warm and fed and bathed, is easy.

 _It’s Chanyeol who is doing all the hard work,_ Kyungsoo thinks. She is a good kid, and they bond over TV shows from Kyungsoo’s childhood, and he watches a lot of modern day shows that he hadn’t really thought he ever would. He enjoys a great number of the shows.

Even though it is hard work, the Court case seems a lot easier to manage than they had expected. Chanyeol won’t talk much about it, but he seems hopeful. “I think we’re going to get custody,” he says. “I really do think we will.”

It is granted to them, to _Chanyeol_ , in late February, and when Chanyeol makes it through the front door, he swings Jinsol up into his arms and kisses her on the forehead. “Do you know what that means?” he asks her.

“I get to stay with you and ’Pa?” she says.

“Yup! You can still go and stay with Grandma and Grandpa, but now you don’t need to travel every week.”

She seems delighted, and when Chanyeol puts her down she promptly turns to hug Kyungsoo.

\---

Now that hurdle has been dealt with, they transfer her to the International School at her wish.

Kyungsoo drops Chanyeol off at work first, and then takes Jinsol to her new school.

He and Chanyeol had met staff when they had toured the school, but these staff are different and don’t know who he is. “Are you her older brother?” they ask.

Kyungsoo still doesn’t know how to identify what he is to Jinsol. “Not really,” he says. “I am family, though. I’m Kyungsoo.”

When he picks Jinsol up, grinning in response to her now familiar, “’Pa!”, she talks his ear off about how she found Somi, and how excited Somi was to see her. “I also made other friends! There’s Yena, and Hyeyeon, and Minjae, and Kong Yoo, and Miso, and Nancy—oh, and there are boys too, who let me play football with them today! Eunsung, and Seunghyun, and Junwook, and Samuel, and, and—” Her class seem really nice, a mixture of foreign, mixed and full-Korean kids. Both Kyungsoo and Chanyeol like the idea of her mixing with kids unlike herself. It will teach her to be more accepting of people with differences. The other kids seem happy to include her in all their games, without caring that she’s new. Maybe the fact she and Somi know each other helps. Somi seems quite popular. Or maybe they’re all just really nice children.

Kyungsoo almost forgets his awkward introduction, until, at the end of the second week when he goes to pick her up after her after-school football classes, one of the teachers calls out to another, “Oh, can you grab Jinsol’s dad?”

Kyungsoo freezes. “Um,” he says.

The teacher, a tall and blond westerner who makes Kyungsoo feel even shorter than he does next to Chanyeol, comes over. “Jinsol had a little bit of a fall during football, but she’s fine. She’s just a little scraped, so she’s in the infirmary with the school nurse.”

Kyungsoo’s heart, which had stopped briefly at the mention of _fall_ , jolts back into motion. Kids do have falls, he has to remind himself. It’s part of who they are.

He follows the teacher through the hallways until they get to the infirmary.

“Jinsol, your dad’s here to pick you up,” the teacher says, before Kyungsoo can stop him. Before she gets overly excited at the thought of it being Chanyeol, Kyungsoo pokes his head around the door.

“Hey, Jinsol,” he says. She looks fine, although her knees, beneath her once-white football shorts, are both covered in Hello Kitty plasters.

“’Pa!” she says, and when she’s allowed to stand up, she runs over to give him a hug.

“She should be fine now,” the nurse, who is probably in her early thirties, says. “Jinsol, don’t let me see you in here again soon, okay?”

“I won’t, Miss,” Jinsol says, politely, and then the teacher leads them out of the classroom.

“I’m Julien,” the teacher says, as they head back to the main entrance. “I help coach the football team. Your daughter’s really good at it, and she’s fast, too.”

“I’m Kyungsoo,” Kyungsoo reciprocates. “Yeah, she broke her old school’s speed record for the fifty metres. And she loves football. I think it’s really great that you allow a mixed-sex team.”

Julien nods his head. “At this age, there isn’t much difference between the sexes when it comes to strength and speed. I think Jinsol’s just as strong as any of the boys on the team, and she’s certainly faster than most of them. It’s usually just getting girls interested in it. Their parents often teach them it’s a boys-only sport.”

“I don’t know how she got into it,” Kyungsoo says honestly. “But I’m glad she has hobbies that aren’t from either of us.”

“You and your wife?” Julien asks.

Kyungsoo looks at him, his eyes wide. “Oh—no, I’m not married,” he says, cursing himself for the slip-up.

“He means my other dad,” Jinsol pipes up.

Kyungsoo’s eyes widen even further, because for a brief moment he’d forgotten she was even there, and that was _not_ something he’d wanted her _school_ to find out. “Hey,” he says, “don’t say it like that.”

“What do you mean?” Jinsol asks, cocking her head. “You meant Daddy.”

“Yeah,” Kyungsoo says. “But not—”

“Hey, man, it’s cool,” Julien says. “I don’t discriminate. Love whoever you want.”

“It’s not like that,” Kyungsoo grumbles.

But Julien doesn’t seem at all bothered by his perception of Kyungsoo’s (non-)relationship, so Kyungsoo sighs and keeps his protests to himself.

Outside, in the car, is a different matter entirely.

“Jinsol,” Kyungsoo begins, carefully, when he’s made sure she’s buckled in properly. He doesn’t start the car, instead choosing to have this conversation while he can see her face. “You can’t just say you have two dads.”

“Why not?” Jinsol asks. “I do have two dads. You and Daddy.”

Kyungsoo feels warmth rise up inside him. He’s—he’s not sure if it’s happiness or flattery that he’s feeling. But the fact she thinks of him as her _dad_ , after less than a year? He likes it. He’s just not sure what Chanyeol will think of it.

“But most people will understand something different, when you say that,” Kyungsoo says. “You know how your classmates have a mummy and a daddy, and they live together and love each other?”

“Yeah,” Jinsol says.

“Some people have two daddies and some people have two mummies, and they are like those mummies and daddies. They love each other. And that’s okay! Like Mr Julien said, you should love whoever you want. But this country we are in, it doesn’t like two mummies or two daddies being together. And if people think that you have two daddies who are together, a big monster might come and separate us, and take you away from us.”

Her eyes are wide now, in fear. “Something might take me away from you and Daddy?”

“Yeah,” Kyungsoo says. “And I don’t want that to happen. Besides, your Daddy and I—we aren’t like that. We’re best friends, so we’re really close, but we’re not—we’re not like mummies and daddies are.”

She frowns. “But you love Daddy,” she says, her voice unwavering with confidence.

“Of course I love your Dad; he’s my best friend,” Kyungsoo repeats. “But not like that.”

“No,” Jinsol argues, completely unafraid and sure of herself.

“What do you mean, no?” Kyungsoo asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Granny and Gramma both say you _do_ love Daddy like that. They say you love Daddy how Prince Charming and Cinderella love each other.”

And Kyungsoo’s chest constricts, almost painfully.

“They told you that?” he says, softly. _Blast_ his interfering mother. And Chanyeol’s too, for that matter.

He usually tries not to think about how Chanyeol’s smiles make him feel. He tries to ignore the warmth he feels when Chanyeol touches him, whether it’s on the shoulder or around his waist when he pulls him in for a hug. He tries to believe that having a good memory for everything Chanyeol has ever said, that might be important later on, is just him being a good friend.

Deliberately, Kyungsoo never thinks on it any more than that. He’s constantly worried that the Korean army will dishonourably discharge him for living with another man, and that he won’t be able to get a job afterwards.

He’s not going down like this.

“Yeah,” Jinsol says. “Granny wants to know when you’re going to become boyfriends.”

“Never,” Kyungsoo says, and then promptly gives up. It’s hard hiding his feelings from himself, and maybe having someone else who knows will make it less awful. “I’m not telling your Daddy, and you’re not going to tell him, either. Okay?”

“What if I have to?” Jinsol asks, eyes wide.

“Why would you ever have to tell him?”

“What if a monster comes along and, and, and puts you to sleep? And you need to be kissed to wake up?”

Kyungsoo suddenly laments letting her watch Sleeping Beauty four times over the weekend. Who even thought that was romantic? “Okay,” he says, only giving in because it’s never going to happen. “You could tell him then. But only then.”

Jinsol grins. “Okay! I will save Daddy!” For the first time, the _Appa_ isn’t truncated to ’Pa, and Kyungsoo feels his cheeks warm.

 _Oh,_ he thinks. Is that what she’s been calling him all this time?

He smiles softly at her, and then turns the key in the ignition. Jinsol’s _other dad_ is probably wondering where they are.

\---

“When are you leaving?” Chanyeol asks. It’s late, and Jinsol’s already asleep in bed. She was antsy today, a little bit argumentative and frustrated, and it took both of them reading her a story, and kissing her on the forehead, for her to drift off.

“Next week,” Kyungsoo says softly.

“Where and when?” Chanyeol asks. “I need to make sure I can get time—”

“No,” Kyungsoo interrupts. “Don’t come and see me off. Please.”

“What?” Chanyeol asks, his voice too loud in the quiet of their home. “Of course we’re coming to see you off. You’re my best friend, and you’re going to be gone for nearly two years. Jinsol loves you.”

“Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo says, soft but stern, “the only people who go to see men off are women. Mothers and girlfriends. You’ll stick out like a sore thumb—you’re not my mum _or_ my girlfriend.”

“And?” Chanyeol asks.

“I just want to go to the military, do my service quietly for two years, and come back home. The quicker I go, the quicker I’ll come back.”

Something surges in Chanyeol’s chest; a burst of something familiar to anger. “I don’t understand you,” he snaps. “This is something important. We need to be able to say goodbye to you. Jinsol needs the closure if you’ll be away for so long.”

“I’ll come back after one hundred days,” Kyungsoo says. “And all my holidays after that.”

Chanyeol frowns.

“And—we can do something before I go. We can invite Baekhyun and Jongdae, do something together. Just. Please, Yeol.” The nickname is so soft. He rarely ever uses it these days, so Chanyeol knows he’s being serious. He’s _thought_ about this. It calms a little bit of the anger in his chest.

“Okay,” Chanyeol says, deflating with a sigh. “We can have a party. This Friday night good?”

Kyungsoo nods.

“Okay, done.”

\---

It’s not easy setting up a party that is appropriate for four twenty-five year old men, one twenty-six year old man (Joonmyun likes Kyungsoo, too. So do Chanyeol’s other co-workers, and obviously Kyungsoo’s too, but none of them could make it), and a seven year old girl, but somehow Chanyeol manages it: with bulgogi, a G-rated, family-friendly non-Disney film that Joonmyun recommended, and a limit of one beer per adult man. They don’t want to scar Jinsol, but Chanyeol also can’t deny them alcohol.

They relax together in Chanyeol and Kyungsoo’s sitting room, sprawled out over the sofa and the floor, wrapped in blankets Joonmyun’s wife had found in the back of a cupboard in their house.

Kyungsoo is the last of them to go into the military, Jongdae having served at eighteen like Chanyeol, and Baekhyun partway through university. Joonmyun served well, and has many fond tales to tell. Jongdae says his memories are less fond, and Baekhyun refuses to talk about his time in the army at all.

“I would like to never be called back,” he says seriously. “Can we not talk about it?”

Kyungsoo nods in agreement, clearly not wanting to be scared off before he goes.

They settle down to watch the film after that. Jinsol falls asleep on Kyungsoo’s lap near the end, and Chanyeol thinks that Kyungsoo looks like he’s going to, as well, although he somehow manages to stay awake for half an hour longer.

Chanyeol calls the evening to a close after Kyungsoo does eventually nod off, and Baekhyun checks his phone.

“The missus is asking for me,” he says. “Tell him I wish him luck,” he adds, nodding towards Kyungsoo, whose head is bent back against the chair. If they were younger, it’d be prime blackmail material. But they all feel too old for teasing now. “May he have a better time than I did.”

“Will do,” Chanyeol says, and he stands to let them out of the house, promising to see them all soon. Once they’re gone, he goes to lift Jinsol off Kyungsoo to let him sleep, even in that awful position which would be most likely to cause some serious neck pain. Kyungsoo wakes up at the movement, and just sits there for a moment as Chanyeol carries Jinsol to her bedroom, tucks her in and kisses her on the forehead.

He heads back to Kyungsoo, who doesn’t seem to register him much, too far gone, and Chanyeol ends up dragging him to his bed and dropping him in and pulling the covers over him.

Maybe it’s the fact that Dad Mode is still on, but kissing him on the forehead seems only natural. Kyungsoo doesn’t even blink, but that’s because he’s already asleep.

\---

Chanyeol isn’t sure how he manages it, but he manages to worm the date of Kyungsoo’s enlistment out of him, with a very reluctant promise to not go and see him off. Kyungsoo refuses to tell him where he will be stationed, anyway.

They spend the final night together, the three of them, eating Kyungsoo’s favourite greasy takeaway as they watch his favourite G-rated film. Kyungsoo’s hair has been cut short in preparation for the army, and Chanyeol finds himself looking over constantly as Kyungsoo picks beef off his Chinese ribs with his fingers, his close-cropped hair a glaring symbol of what is to come. It’s so wrong that Chanyeol can’t find comfort in it.

Kyungsoo heads to bed early, but not before Chanyeol wraps him up in a hug that probably lasts too long. “I’m going to miss you,” he whispers, leaning down so his head is pressed into Kyungsoo’s shoulder.

“I’ll miss you too,” Kyungsoo responds, equally soft. “But I’ll be back before you know it.” He lets his hand fall from the back of Chanyeol’s neck. Chanyeol doesn’t remember when he put it there.

“Can I sleep with you tonight, ’Pa?” Jinsol asks, and Kyungsoo nods.

“Sure,” he says.

Chanyeol lets Kyungsoo take over, getting her ready for bed. He slumps into the sofa for a moment, just sighing to himself. He can’t believe that in twenty-four hours, he and Jinsol will be alone, properly, until December next year.

It’s too early to feel lonely, though. He gets himself up and heads through to Kyungsoo’s bedroom, to wish them both goodnight. Jinsol is curled up against Kyungsoo already, her hands clenched in the sleep shirt Chanyeol knows Kyungsoo is only wearing for her benefit. “Goodnight,” Chanyeol whispers, leaning over to pull the covers up under her and Kyungsoo’s chin. He kisses Jinsol’s forehead and smiles over at Kyungsoo.

“Night, Yeol,” Kyungsoo says sleepily, and then they’re both asleep.

Chanyeol’s heart hurts, and he’s not entirely sure why.

\---

Chanyeol wakes up early the next day, wanting to catch Kyungsoo before he leaves. He heads through to Kyungsoo’s bedroom. But Kyungsoo’s not there, just Jinsol, sprawled out over the space he left behind.

Chanyeol heads around the house quickly, but Kyungsoo’s gone. There’s no letter, but the magnets on the fridge have been manipulated into spelling the words _goodbye_ and _love you_.

Chanyeol isn’t sure if he feels empty, angry, or hurt. Probably all of them. He thinks it’s cowardly for Kyungsoo to leave like that, even though he knows it was Kyungsoo’s intention all along. Maybe it would hurt him less, but it certainly doesn’t hurt less to Chanyeol. He feels like he’s been tossed aside. Did they matter so little to Kyungsoo?

He knows this is irrational, that the _love you_ on the fridge _means_ something, but his chest aches and he doesn’t want to give Kyungsoo any credit.

When Jinsol wakes up and realises that Kyungsoo’s gone, she starts crying, and it takes four episodes of _My Little Pony_ , some ice cream, and a very long hug to get her to stop.

Chanyeol curses Kyungsoo mentally. One hundred days.

\---

Before Kyungsoo left, Chanyeol hadn’t quite realised how _long_ one hundred days is. But ticking off each day on the calendar in the kitchen really hammers it home.

Chanyeol is exhausted. He just wants Kyungsoo in front of him, so he can grip his shoulders and bodily shake him. “Why didn’t you go to the army when Seungsoo-hyung came back?” he wants to ask. “Why didn’t you go two years ago, and come back before we even had Jinsol? Why didn’t you do that?”

It’s selfish, and he knows it. But he never realised until now how much he relied on Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo was better at cooking, even though Chanyeol makes a mean breakfast. Having someone willing to drive them both about was a godsend. He was the best person to help Jinsol with her homework—even though Kyungsoo wasn’t a particularly good student, he still somehow soaked up knowledge like a sponge, and he always had so much patience to explain theories for the third time whenever Jinsol got confused (even though he’d snap at Baekhyun whenever he asked for help back during university). And he always knew the best bedtime stories to get her to sleep.

She doesn’t want to sleep now Kyungsoo’s not here.

Sometimes Jinsol just sits and cries about how she wants Daddy. Chanyeol hadn’t understood why she wouldn’t calm down when he tried to hold her, until Kyungsoo’s mother had said, “Don’t worry, little owl.” The nickname is something she still calls Kyungsoo, at twenty-five. He gets kind of embarrassed when she uses it around Chanyeol, but Chanyeol would never mock him for it, and he knows it. “Your Daddy Kyungsoo will be back soon.”

It had surprised him so much he hadn’t really known what to think. He had taken Kyungsoo’s mother aside and asked, “How long has she been calling Kyungsoo _Daddy_?”

She had laughed. “It’s been months,” she’d said. “You never noticed?”

“No,” Chanyeol had responded. “I never realised she felt that way about him.”

“Kyungsoo has been doing the same job as you since day one,” Kyungsoo’s mother told him. “And they’re close. It’s not surprising she considers him her father.”

“Does he know?”

She’d nodded. “I think he’s flattered. He loves her, and she loves him. She’s lucky she has the both of you. You’re both such good fathers to her.”

After that, Chanyeol thinks he has a better understanding of the relationship between his daughter and his best friend. He sits down with Jinsol and has her explain to him her feelings, because he wants to make sure he understands.

Jinsol explains it rather simply. “You’re both my dads,” she says. “You both feed me and look after me and love me. That’s what daddies do.”

He could argue with her and tell her Kyungsoo isn’t her father, but what would be the point? When she explains it, he realises there has never been any definition between the two of them. There’s nothing that says he, as her biological father, is more important than Kyungsoo, who isn’t, who wasn’t ever supposed to actually be a _father_ to her. If he insists that she call Kyungsoo _Oppa_ , is he cheapening his own relationship with her? Would he be destroying something between the three of them, suggesting things that aren’t there? That Kyungsoo is less worthy than him of being her father, just because his genes didn’t work towards creating Jinsol?

Because that would be untrue.

Until now, Chanyeol had never entirely realised that Kyungsoo was just as much a father to her as he was, sometimes maybe even more. Chanyeol has always trusted him implicitly with Jinsol; he’s never had cause to be concerned about leaving the two of them together, because he’s always known what to do.

Of all people, he’s really glad it’s Kyungsoo—there’s nobody else he would want to bring a child up with. Kyungsoo’s never really liked kids, but he _loves_ Jinsol. Chanyeol guesses that this is why. She’s his _daughter_. He’s almost _obliged_ to love her.

Everything suddenly makes _sense_ to Chanyeol. And yet, “But two dads…”

“Daddy explained it to me,” Jinsol says. It takes barely a second for the term to sink in. “Korea doesn’t like two daddies being together. So I shouldn’t say I have two dads like that. But you _are_ both my dads.”

 _Kyungsoo really thought of it all._ “…okay,” Chanyeol says. And then he realises. He’ll have to change too. It’s weird to refer to someone as _Oppa_ when your daughter considers him her father. “Do you want me to…I’ve been calling him _Oppa_. Do you want me to stop?”

Jinsol nods rapidly. She looks up at him, her eyes glistening. Chanyeol is weak to this look.

“Okay,” he says, slowly, and swallows thickly. “I think I can manage that.” He pauses, trying to think of something to cheer her up. “Do you want to write a letter to…to Daddy?” It’s almost hard to force the word out, knowing that he’s referring to Kyungsoo with it, even after promising her, but he does it. And once it’s out, it doesn’t sound that wrong.

Jinsol’s eyes light up. “Yes!” she says, and runs to her room to grab paper and pens.

Chanyeol’s eyes follow her, and linger on the closed door to Kyungsoo’s bedroom. He swallows again, and sighs. Only forty more days.

\---

The last forty days pass, as all the days before them did. Chanyeol helps Jinsol with her homework, sitting with a maths textbook beside him to remind him of primary school skills. He teaches Jinsol how to bake, teaching himself to make butterfly fairy cakes so they can make them for her friends and her three sets of grandparents. He takes her to the cinema to see the new Pixar film, in English with Hangul subtitles, and very quietly whispers explanations and translations to her when she doesn’t quite understand the written characters. She can write letters really well, she just has a bit of trouble realising what she’s written. He takes her to look at puppies in the local animal shelter as a reward for good behaviour, and considers that maybe a pet would help with routine and a sense of importance, of something relying on her.

It’s not all fun and games, of course. Jinsol isn’t above being bratty, or argumentative. Sometimes she throws a fit if Chanyeol asks her to clean her room or put glasses in the dishwasher after she uses them. She has rare nightmares that cause her to scream in the night and then refuses to go to school because she’s so tired.

But mostly it’s alright, and Chanyeol learns to deal with it when it’s not.

He has Kyungsoo’s mother, who knows where Kyungsoo is stationed, post five letters during the last stretch of time; four from Jinsol which all read, _Dear Daddy_ , and one from himself, which ends in _I miss you_ , despite his best efforts not to. He did, however, manage not to beg him to come _home_.

“You know he loves you,” Chanyeol’s mother had told him, when he’d muttered something about how he didn’t really get to say goodbye, and how he’s still mad, even though there’s not much time until Kyungsoo comes home for his first break. “And you know what the Army is like about conscripts. They expect them to be eighteen, and single, and still live at home with their mothers, like you were when you went. Kyungsoo is none of those things. It makes sense that he wouldn’t want the Korean Army to have…questions. Your life is your business, it’s none of the Army’s.”

It’s a better explanation for Kyungsoo’s reluctance for Chanyeol to wave him off, and he begins to understand how awkward it must be for Kyungsoo. So he’s subtle when he writes, talking about Jinsol like she’s Kyungsoo’s daughter instead of his, instead of _theirs_ , just in case anyone reads the letters before they get to Kyungsoo. He knows Jinsol never refers to him as _Daddy_ in her letters, even though it’s awkward, as she obviously lives with him.

Kyungsoo is scheduled to come back on a Thursday, June 29th. Chanyeol begs Joonmyun to let him have the two days off to spend with him. Joonmyun smiles knowingly and pats him on the back.

“Of course you can,” he says.

On Wednesday night, Jinsol is so excited that she gives herself a headache and has to go to bed early. Chanyeol promises himself that he’ll call her in sick if she actually makes herself ill with her excitement. Kyungsoo can get straight back into doing Dad Duty.

It’s about lunchtime when the door opens. Jinsol did make herself sick, so she and Chanyeol are curled up watching _Ponyo_. She’s off the sofa and running out of the room before Chanyeol can stop her, shouting, “Daddy!”

By the time Chanyeol reaches them, Kyungsoo, fully dressed in his army fatigues, has an armful of Jinsol. “Shouldn’t you be at school?” he asks, looking down at her with a furrowed brow.

“She was too excited,” Chanyeol says. “She made herself sick.”

“I missed you,” Jinsol says, and presses her face back into his stomach. “It’s not the same without you.”

Chanyeol sees how Kyungsoo swallows, wrapping his arms closer around her, and also gets misty-eyed. It’s been hard, and it’s going to get a whole lot harder. “It’s nice to see you again,” is what he says, instead.

“Likewise,” Kyungsoo says. “I’ve missed you both so much.”

He settles down on the sofa as soon as Jinsol lets him move. Chanyeol bustles around the kitchen making tea, keeping his ears open as Kyungsoo tells Jinsol about another conscript who has a child.

“He’s three,” Kyungsoo says. “Hyung kept showing me pictures of him and their kitten.”

“Kitties!” 

“Yeah, he’s called Bill.”

“I like kitties,” Jinsol says, “but I really want a puppy.”

“What does your dad think?” Kyungsoo asks.

“Daddy wants to know if _you_ want a puppy,” she says. “It’s your choice too.”

“Oh!” Kyungsoo says, as if he hadn’t really considered it. “If you get a puppy now, it won’t be a puppy when I come back.”

“Oh,” Jinsol says.

Chanyeol takes this moment to bring out the tea and cups. He puts them on the coffee table. “Would you be happy with a dog, though?”

Kyungsoo shrugs. “If you get a dog and you train it well, that’ll be fine? We’ll get used to each other when I come back.” He pauses, and then grins. “Though you’d better not replace me with a dog. I’ll know who to blame if you do!”

“Of course I wouldn’t!” Chanyeol says, putting his hand over his heart as if the thought hurts.

Jinsol giggles, and Chanyeol feels complete for the first time in one hundred days.

\---

They can’t do much in public, the three of them, whilst Kyungsoo is in his army uniform. Kyungsoo is hyperaware of how it looks; two men, one in the army, hanging out together with a little girl calling, “Daddy!” after them indiscriminately (Kyungsoo is surprised, but not unhappy, at how well Chanyeol is obviously taking it).

So they spend much of their time at home, Kyungsoo catching up on the news and social media, and then just curling up together in front of the television.

They do go out on the second day, when Jinsol’s at school. Once they’ve gone shopping, they take a trip to look at dogs in the local animal shelter. There’s a fluffy black puppy that Chanyeol really likes, his eyes big and beautiful.

“Aren’t you allergic to fur?” Kyungsoo asks, looking at the puppy, who really _is_ cute. “I don’t think his type of fur is hypoallergenic.”

“I know,” Chanyeol says, whining, as he leans his head closer towards the puppy, who presses his head against the door to his cage. The puppy whimpers, and Chanyeol coos, and then promptly sneezes. The puppy, finding this distasteful, jumps back and turns to Kyungsoo instead. “But he’s _so_ cute. I don’t mind taking antihistamines every day for the rest of my life.”

Kyungsoo chuckles, and takes Chanyeol’s hand and leads him out of there before he can commit. “Take Jinsollie to look at him,” he says, when they leave. “If she falls in love as quickly as you, it’s fate. Take your antihistamines.”

Chanyeol just grins at him, toothy and beautiful, and Kyungsoo’s chest hurts.

Once they’ve left, they go for a walk, just chatting about things Kyungsoo has missed the past hundred days. Changes in the world, and more locally. Chanyeol tells him about the new Korean President and his efforts to make South Korea a better place—and other Presidents besides, who are also in the news, about the new girl group he’s working on music for, and Jinsol’s playdates with Somi and Yena.

After a while the words start blurring together for Kyungsoo, who just watches Chanyeol’s mouth move, the smile in his eyes, the wave of his arms as he expresses himself. He’s missed Chanyeol so much—he only has one photograph that he took with Jinsol, because it’s less suspicious that way. He can claim to be looking at his daughter.

Right this minute, he just wants to hold Chanyeol, feel that he’s real, because it still hurts. He’s already going to lose him again tomorrow, and that’s too soon.

“What’s that look for?” Chanyeol asks, stopping in the middle of what Kyungsoo _thinks_ is a conversation about injuries.

It startles Kyungsoo into straightening his expression from what he’s pretty sure was just straight-up _fond_. “You just reminded me of the time you tripped over a chair trying to open the front door for my mother and ended up needing stitches.”

It’s a terrible excuse and they both know it, but Chanyeol takes the bait anyway. “You promised we’d never speak of that again, you brat!” He lunges for Kyungsoo, but obviously slow enough Kyungsoo can tell it’s a joke.

Kyungsoo just laughs, although he dodges all of Chanyeol’s flailing arms. He’s still wearing army fatigues, after all.

\---

Like all good things, it must come to an end. They have a quiet night in before Kyungsoo has to leave, ordering black bean noodles from the takeaway down the road and eating them in front of the television as always. Jinsol pesters them to take selfies, as mementos, but aside from that it’s terribly peaceful.

“I just realised that you haven’t seen anybody but us,” Chanyeol whispers, over the awful shrieking from a performer on _Korea’s Got Talent_. Jinsol’s watching with wide, enamoured eyes, even though they all know she has more taste than this. “Baekhyun, Jongdae, Joonmyun, your parents, and the rest are going to get mad at me. I’m sorry for keeping you here.”

“Don’t be silly,” Kyungsoo says, leaning closer so that their arms brush, their hands linking for a moment. He squeezes. “There’s no place I’d rather be.”

They hug once again before bed, overly long like always. Before he goes, Kyungsoo heads into the kitchen for a glass of water and when he’s been gone a little too long, Chanyeol follows him in. He finds him standing in front of the fridge. His goodbye messages are still exactly where he’d left them.

“You kept these?” Kyungsoo asks softly.

“Of course,” Chanyeol says. “The pieces of you—they’re what kept Jinsol going.” He doesn’t add the _and me_. He wonders if Kyungsoo knows.

“Thank you,” Kyungsoo says, and the smile he gives Chanyeol is soft and _happy_. There’s also something else that Chanyeol can’t place, like the expression he’d had earlier when they were out for their walk. Warmth, maybe. Affection.

“Goodnight,” Chanyeol says, for lack of anything else to say.

“Goodbye,” Kyungsoo responds.

In the morning he’s gone.

\---

Taking Kyungsoo up on his advice, Chanyeol takes Jinsol to go and look at the puppy.

“He’s so cute!” she squeals, her eyes like saucers. Chanyeol grins.

“Do you want to adopt him?” he asks. “Kyungsoo says it’s okay, if you’re interested in a dog. It’ll be a lot of work; we’ll have to train him and walk him and make sure that he lives comfortably. But if you’re up for that, we can learn together.”

“I know it’ll be work,” Jinsol says. “A couple of my friends have dogs, and they were saying that it’s sometimes tiring. But I really love dogs, and he’s so cute!”

Her excitement feeds into his, and it doesn’t take long for him to organise the paperwork. The little black dog becomes theirs.

They go shopping for him, leaving him at the animal shelter until they are fully prepared, and then take him home.

“What shall we call him?” Chanyeol asks Jinsol, who shrugs. “Okay then. You want me to name him?”

“Yes,” she says. “I don’t know what to call him.”

When they’re looking down at little Be Toben, Chanyeol thinks that Kyungsoo might wish he hadn’t left Chanyeol unchecked. But it’s his own fault for leaving.

\---

Chanyeol doesn’t have many opportunities to pick Jinsol up from school. Since Kyungsoo left, one of their mothers has been picking her up—and sometimes bringing back strange things like homemade cookies or even evening meals for two, and then not explaining where they got them from. But today Joonmyun had closed the studio early, giving Chanyeol time to go to her school.

Jinsol isn’t waiting at the gate when he arrives, so he heads into the school.

“Hi, I’m Chanyeol, I’m Lee Jinsol’s dad,” he says to the secretary at Reception. “Class 3-1? Do you know where she is?”

The school is large enough that Chanyeol isn’t entirely expecting her to know who he means immediately, so he is surprised when she smiles. “Jinsollie! What a lovely girl.” Then she pauses. “I don’t recognise you. I’m afraid you’ll have to wait here.”

Chanyeol sighs. “I work late usually, so her grandmothers have been picking her up recently. Before that it was Kyungsoo?”

“Kyungsoo! That’s what I thought her dad’s name was, yes.”

“He’s away doing his military service,” Chanyeol explains. “So he can’t come until he’s back. I’m her…other dad? We…share her?” He probably needs a better explanation than this.

“Like stepfathers?” the secretary asks, confusion clear in her voice.

Chanyeol jumps on the explanation. “Yeah, like that,” he says, even though it probably— _definitely_ –isn’t like that.

“I’ll just call Julien then,” the secretary says, slowly, picking up her phone. There’s a brief discussion, and then she turns to Chanyeol. “He’s going to come through to collect you in a moment.”

Julien turns out to be tall and blond, with western features—even taller than Chanyeol himself. “Hi Chanyeol, I’m Julien. It’s great to meet you at last,” Julien says. His Korean is fluent, without a hint of an accent, and Chanyeol decides he probably isn’t a foreigner, but definitely a mixed Korean. “You’re a lucky man. Kyungsoo is a great guy, and you’ve both got a fantastic daughter—one of the best athletes in her year. Come with me and watch her run for a bit.” His tone brooks no arguments, and leaves no room for interruptions and corrections about his assumption of Chanyeol and Kyungsoo’s relationship. Chanyeol shrugs and follows him through the school and out to the field behind the school. Jinsol, in her sports gear, her white socks already covered in grass stains, is lined up on the red tarmac track with some other girls. Chanyeol recognises Somi and Yena, Jinsol’s best friends, but he doesn’t recognise the rest.

The whistle blows, and Jinsol rises from her position and starts running. She’s easily the fastest of the girls, zooming ahead, her hair escaping from her messy plaits as she runs. She finishes just around the bend of the track almost a full metre ahead of Somi.

Chanyeol can’t help but applaud. “Wow,” he says. “I’ve never seen her run before.”

“I wanted to show Kyungsoo, but he stopped coming.”

“He’s doing his military service,” Chanyeol explains. “But he’d love to see this.”

“Hi Daddy!” Jinsol shouts across the track, waving frantically. Chanyeol waves back, and she runs over, Somi, Yena, and a couple of the other girls following.

“Hi Ahjussi,” Somi, who is almost as tall as Jinsol and equally as leggy, says cheerfully, when she reaches them. Chanyeol twitches. He doesn’t think he’ll ever get used to being considered _old_. Yena, who is always shy and always has her brown hair done in two bunches with ribbons in them, dips into a silent bow. Despite her shyness, she is always smiling, her eyes curved into crescents and her cheeks puffed out. The other two girls wave.

“Hi Jinsol, Somi, Yena,” Chanyeol says. “Hi,” he adds to the last two girls.

“Daddy, this is Nancy, and this is Siyeon,” Jinsol says, indicating the two girls. Both girls have long faces and dark hair, but Nancy’s eyes are wide and her nose like that of a little pig, whereas Siyeon’s eyes are larger. Jinsol spins around. “That’s Kyla,” she says, pointing towards another girl, with solid legs and a round face, her hair in a ponytail, “Rachel,” this time to a girl with brown hair in plaits and a huge smile, “and Hyeyeon,” a girl with loose black hair, eye crescents and puffy cheeks.

Chanyeol nods, trying to commit everything to memory. “Hi girls,” he repeats. “Are you having fun?”

“Yes!” Nancy says. “We’re trying to beat Jinsollie’s track record, but it’s too hard.”

“The top three fastest runners get to be in the school track competition,” Siyeon says. “I think it’s going to be Jinsol, Somi, and Hyeyeon. None of us can keep up.”

“Good luck,” Chanyeol says. “I’m sure all this practise will help you a lot.”

“Thank you!” Nancy and Siyeon chorus.

“Are you ready to go, Jinsol?” Chanyeol asks.

“Yeah!” Jinsol says. “I’ll just tell the Coach.” She’s gone in a blink, racing across the grass towards the track, Somi and Nancy hot on her heels, and Siyeon a little after her. Yena stays behind, looking at her feet as she shuffles them on the ground.

“Ahjussi,” she begins slowly, and Chanyeol kneels to be closer to her height. It always takes a while for Yena to speak, so he doesn’t want to scare her. “My mummy wants to know if you enjoyed the cookies?”

Chanyeol blinks. _Oh_ , so that’s where those came from. “Yes,” he says. “Jinsol and I enjoyed them. Please say thank you to her for me.”

“Can I—can I come over later? On Friday? I can bring more cookies!” She looks up at him with wide eyes.

“Of course you can, Yena,” Chanyeol says, not at all surprised. Jinsol’s been going to Yena or Somi’s house a lot lately, so it makes sense that it’s probably his turn to return the favour. Yena’s mother, Jinhee, is about five or six years older than Chanyeol and always treats Chanyeol like a combination of son she needs to feed and little brother she needs to tease. He would never admit that he enjoys it, but he does.

“Yay!” Yena says, smiling. “I’ll tell my mummy. Thank you, Ahjussi!” And then she runs off after the others before Chanyeol can even stand up again.

Chanyeol sighs, but he’s grinning.

\---

After Yena comes over after school on Friday, and is sweet as always, Chanyeol is invited into the parental friendship group, which is how he meets the rest of the girls’ parents. Chanyeol is positive Yena has something to do with it.

The other girls’ parents tend to be about five to ten years older than him and are very kind to him, although he can see them sometimes working very hard to not treat him like he’s still a rebellious teenager. Kyla’s mother is constantly offering to make food for him and Jinsol, and Rachel’s father invites him for dinner at least three times (he takes them up on at least one offer).

There’s only one awkward moment, and that’s when Siyeon’s mother asks where Jinsol’s mother is.

“She, um, she passed away,” Chanyeol says. “A few years ago now.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Siyeon’s mother says.

“It must be tough, bringing up your daughter on your own,” Kyla’s father says.

“Thank you, but don’t worry,” he says. “I’m not. I have a lot of family to help.” Including Jinsol’s other father, but they don’t need to know that, _yet_ …

\---

Once the group of adults have all been meeting up for weekend lunch dates for several months, and are more comfortable with each other (to the point Hyeyeon and Siyeon’s parents are constantly trying to send Chanyeol on blind dates with female friends of theirs), Chanyeol is somehow strong-armed into driving a group of the girls to Aqua Planet Ilsan, the biggest aquarium in Seoul and the surrounding areas. _At least they’re cute,_ he thinks, and at least he technically knows how to drive. Kyungsoo had left him his car keys before he’d gone, and Chanyeol is confident that he’s not going to cause an accident with four girls who aren’t his daughters squeezed into the backseat for an hour’s drive. He’s on the insurance anyway.

Somi, Siyeon and Rachel were unable to make it, so he helps Yena, Hyeyeon, Nancy and Kyla into the backseat of the car. They’ve been appropriately packed with entertainment, so the journey isn’t as insufferable as it could be with five seven (“And a half!”) year old girls in the car. During the moments of noise, Jinsol keeps turning around in her seat to contribute to conversations about which ice cream flavour is best, how well their school is going to do at the school sports championships, and which member of ASTRO is the cutest. Chanyeol doesn’t even know who ASTRO are, but he feels like, as a budding music producer, he probably should, and makes a mental note to search for them on Naver later. He also feels like seven year old girls shouldn’t find teenage boys cute, but who is he to say as such? He’s much happier when they move onto NCT Dream, and Boy Story.

The rest of the time the girls play I Spy quietly, or play on kiddie tablets provided by their parents. Kyla’s Korean isn’t as good as the rest, so she keeps announcing words unsurely and waiting for translations (courtesy of Nancy) or explanations (from the rest). Chanyeol figures she’s probably studying, whereas he’s positive Hyeyeon is playing a dress-up doll game, Nancy leaning over Yena (who is watching some kind of educational children’s programme, huge fluffy headphones on her ears) to help. He’s proven right when they arrive at the aquarium and Nancy thrusts Hyeyeon’s tablet through the gap in their seats.

“Ahjussi! Look at this!”

“Very pretty,” Chanyeol says dutifully, even though he has no sense of women’s fashion—though he still isn’t sure that pastel pink, neon orange, and blood red go together.

Hyeyeon seems pleased though, so he considers that he’s doing a good job.

He helps the girls out of the car and herds them through to the aquarium. Their parents had supplied the child fares; thankfully, as the price—over 100,000₩—almost makes him choke.

Chanyeol has never been to this aquarium before, and the sights awe him just as much as they awe the girls, who gasp every time a sea creature comes near to the glass. They first pay a visit to Mary, the mascot of the aquarium. Jinsol seems absolutely delighted by the walrus, who splashes them. Chanyeol has just enough time to pick up Nancy, who is a little closer to the danger zone than the rest; lifting her away so that she doesn’t get soaked. Yena, less impressed by the walrus, scurries to stand behind him.

Nancy and Hyeyeon seem fascinated by jellyfish, and they spend a good ten minutes just letting them read all the signs about the creatures. In comparison, Yena, Kyla and Jinsol get super excited when Chanyeol says there’s a petting zoo on the top floor.

Once they finish part of the tour around the aquarium, there’s a touch pool for kids to play in. Hyeyeon and Kyla settle down there, leaning over to dip their hands in the water, quickly followed by Jinsol and Nancy. Once again, Yena becomes unimpressed, and Chanyeol laughs and shuffles her towards the pool anyway, just in case. There are fish who come over to their hands, and Jinsol squeals.

“They feel so different!”

Between her and Kyla, Chanyeol thinks they touch every fish in the pool, just to prove they can. Both girls giggle every time they touch a fish, and he has to stop them from trying to scoop a fish out of the water so they can see it closer up. Eventually even Yena gets into it, running her fingers through the water and giggling as her fingers touch life.

After they’re done with the touch pool, they head towards the lift. Chanyeol takes them up to the top floor, and they spend a good forty minutes stroking lambs and kids, playing with baby chicks and rabbits (“ _BUNNIES!_ ” squeals Hyeyeon), and even taking turns to ride the pony. This is something Yena consents to, and her eyes and mouth are wide with glee as the pony takes her around the arena.

“Uncle Chanyeol,” she says, when he lifts her off the pony, and— _huh_ , _that’s_ new. She’s never called him that before, only _Ahjussi_. “Can I do that again?”

Considering they still have plenty of time before the aquarium closes, and the other girls have already had their turn, Chanyeol can’t see there being a problem. After a little boy, younger than the girls, gets a turn on the pony, her handler helps Yena back on, giving her another tour around the arena, and she giggles when she’s lifted off.

“That was _so great_ ,” she says, her eyes sparking.

Once they’ve had their fill of the petting zoo, they head back down to the lower floors and through to the zoo part, going from penguins to otters and then to lemurs and jaguars. They feed the parrots with some seeds they buy for that purpose, and all the girls seem quite taken with the beautiful birds that rest on their hands, even Yena.

“Rachel’s scared of birds,” Nancy volunteers. “She would hate this.”

Once they’ve seen everything, Chanyeol takes them to the shopping centre next door. Pooling the rest of the money their parents had provided means he can afford a few McDonalds kids meals for them, and they’re perfectly happy to sit in the food court sharing between the six of them (Chanyeol doesn’t get very much of his own meal, which is mostly fine).

The journey back is spent with most of the girls asleep, tired from all the excitement of the day. There’s something about looking at all of them in the rear view mirror, that makes him think, _I like this. I like looking after more than one._ But he pushes it away before he can dwell on it. One child is probably enough right now, anyway.

\---

As much as Chanyeol wants to believe that his daughter is perfect, she _is_ a little girl, and she is prone to some bad behaviour. Sometimes she sits down in the middle of the street and refuses to move, just because he won’t buy her another ice cream. Sometimes she glares at him when he makes a joke she doesn’t like, and she insists it wasn’t funny, and that she’s not going to talk to him now. Getting her to brush her teeth or tidy her room up can even be a major struggle. If Chanyeol doesn’t give her a bedtime story when she _demands_ one, she’s been known to deliberately refuse sleep’s grasp, and Chanyeol ends up having to help her get dressed in the morning because she’s too tired and too stroppy to do so herself—though it’s not as bad as when she has the nightmares.

But it’s all standard child behaviour, and it’s mostly annoying but harmless. She at least never does anything physical, unlike one of the boys in her class, Junwook, Chanyeol thinks, who’s been known to throw things in his anger.

But this? This insistence, desperation, to stay more and more at someone else’s house than at home with Chanyeol? This is a new and different kind of misbehaving.

She alternates between her grandparents’ houses and her friends’ houses, spending less and less time at home. Chanyeol finds himself alone more than ever. He takes advantage of this by going out more with his co-workers, who find it hilarious.

“Jinsol,” he says one day, when he’s managed to corner her. “Talk to me. What’s going on? You’re not usually like this.”

It takes a lot of coercing to get it out of her.

“Some older kids were laughing about how I don’t have a mummy,” she says slowly, curled up into Chanyeol’s side. “They find it funny how it’s always my grandparents who pick me up from school.”

This doesn’t begin to explain it, but Jinsol’s not finished.

“Then they said my daddy clearly doesn’t love me because he stopped coming, so I told them he’s in the army. And they thought that was funny too, because that means my daddy was really young when he had me, and that’s bad as well. They also sad the army isn’t safe and Daddy might not come back. I just…I really just miss Daddy.”

Chanyeol gathers her close as she starts to cry. “Oh, honey, don’t cry. Those were just mean kids. They don’t know anything about you, or the army. Your Daddy is going to be fine—we’re not going to war now.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, of course. You know Kyungsoo loves you. He’s not going to let anything happen to him before he comes back.”

Jinsol blinks up at him, her eyes glassy.

“And I love you too,” Chanyeol says. “Yes, I was young when I had you. But you’re one of the best things that’s happened to me. I don’t know if you knew that, but it’s true. My life is different with you in it, but that’s not a bad thing. So don’t let them get to you. You’re safe, and loved, here.”

Jinsol crawls into his lap, pressing her wet face against his chest so she can feel his heartbeat, and Chanyeol just rocks her gently until she drifts off. His heart hurts.

\---

In order that she doesn’t get quite so upset again about missing Kyungsoo, Chanyeol suggests they hold a tea party. With Kyungsoo the penguin.

“You can’t miss him, he’s right here!” Chanyeol says, holding the penguin toy so that she can’t see his hand. She’s not stupid, but it’s worth a go.

She laughs, and agrees.

“I really miss you!” Chanyeol says, doing a strange imitation of Kyungsoo that is by no means perfect. Kyungsoo is _much_ better at imitations. “There are lots of men here but no pretty girls like you!”

“Daddy would never say that,” Jinsol says, grinning.

“What do you mean, I’d never say that? Of course I’d say that, I just did!” Kyungsoo-the-penguin says. Chanyeol dips its face into the plastic tea cup. “Oh I miss tea! I make the best tea.”

“You do, Daddy,” Jinsol agrees, trying to keep her facial expression straight. “Dad doesn’t know how to make tea.”

Chanyeol breaks character to complain. “Hey! My tea’s fine! See how you like it when I don’t make you any!” He sticks his tongue out, being deliberately silly.

She just laughs.

\---

It’s late in the afternoon at work. Chanyeol’s been up all night with a sick and crying Jinsol, and he’s been drifting off all day. Yoongi, one of his co-workers, has been strangely upbeat all day, volunteering to listen to one of Chanyeol’s songs when it’s obvious that he doesn’t know where it’s going, and allowing Chanyeol to listen to one of his to see whether he thinks it’d suit that new boy group that Baekhyun keeps subtly promoting. He even talks to Chanyeol during lunchbreak, asking him how Jinsol is, and when Kyungsoo is coming back from the army. It’s uncharacteristic of Yoongi, who is especially introverted to the point of social anxiety (some people think it’s “grumpiness”, but Chanyeol, who lives with an introvert, recognises the signs) and prefers to keep to himself when not spoken to first, even though he obviously likes them all, as he’s usually the first to offer to do a coffee run from the cheap indie café down the road. Having him volunteer his music, though, and chatting to Chanyeol—that’s definitely unusual.

“Why’s Yoongi being so…perky?” Chanyeol asks Joonmyun, as he reaches for the coffee, dumping three spoonfuls in even though Joonmyun tuts disapprovingly. Chanyeol usually loves when people come out of their shell and start being bright and cheerful, but his lack of sleep might be getting to him.

“Jeongguk’s coming back from the army tomorrow,” Joonmyun explains. He obligingly refills the kettle, getting out extra mugs for their other co-workers; along with Yoongi, there’s Hyojin, Yebin and Jihoon. “He’s just excited to see him again, they’ve barely seen each other these past two years, even when Jeongguk had days off.”

“Who’s Jeongguk, his brother?” Chanyeol asks, and then covers his mouth as he yawns.

Joonmyun puts the kettle down. “No,” he says. “The love of his life?” He seems surprised that Chanyeol didn’t know this. Chanyeol might feel disappointed in himself when he wakes up, too.

Chanyeol will blame how tired he is for the complete lack of filter that causes him to say, “Huh, I didn’t know he was like that.” He doesn’t necessarily mean it in a bad way, he’s just surprised—Yoongi doesn’t seem like he has a romantic bone in his body, so he’s entirely baffled as to how he managed to get a boyfriend. But something must have made it seem like he’s against that, because Joonmyun pushes away from the counter with one movement, making no move towards the kettle. He blinks.

“Yes,” he says, slowly. “Yoongi is. I’m surprised at you, Chanyeol. I didn’t realise _you_ , of all people, were like _this_. How does Kyungsoo put up with you? How dense can you be?”

“What?” Chanyeol asks, his brain trying to process this too slowly. “No, that’s not—”

“Go home, Chanyeol,” Joonmyun says. He’s frowning. Chanyeol doesn’t like when he frowns. “Get some sleep. Come back in tomorrow when you’re feeling better.”

Chanyeol goes home with his metaphorical tail between his legs.

\---

Jeongguk comes to visit them at work the next day. He’s tall, though not as tall as Chanyeol, and solidly built, with thick quads and bulging biceps, and he’s _young_ , too; a solid five years younger than Chanyeol (and a few months younger than Yebin, their youngest colleague). He has a broad, toothy smile, and reminds Chanyeol a little of a fluffy bunny, even with all the muscles. He also doesn’t seem to be Yoongi’s boyfriend, as he introduces himself as Yoongi’s best friend (Yoongi introduces him as “a brat I know”), though Yoongi makes fond eyes at him every time he’s not looking. Chanyeol thinks Yoongi probably doesn’t realise his affection for Jeongguk is as obvious as it is, because he’s turned the gruffness up a lot more than usual. It’s cute, and Joonmyun can’t stop smiling.

“They’re both bunnies,” Hyojin whispers to Chanyeol, referring to Joonmyun and Jeongguk. He laughs, because she’s not wrong. He would just never call Joonmyun a rabbit to his _face_.

Jeongguk becomes a fixture in their office every evening. Chanyeol figures out that he has been staying with Yoongi and job hunting for something to do. He gets bored, even though he does hang out with other friends of his during the day, so he comes to bother them at the end of the day, reminding them all it’s time to go home. He’s sweet, and Chanyeol finds himself looking forward to their group outings, when he knows that Jinsol’s being looked after.

“It’s nice to see you out with us,” Joonmyun says, patting him on the back. “It’s funny that being the only parent at home makes you more sociable.”

Chanyeol just laughs.

\---

“Does Jinsol’s school do ‘Take Your Children to Work Day’?” Joonmyun asks one afternoon in November. It’s nearing Chanyeol’s twenty-sixth birthday, and Jinsol’s eighth. Chanyeol can’t believe they’re both this old already.

“I don’t know what that is,” Chanyeol says.

“It’s an American export,” Joonmyun says. “I think this is its first year in Korea. It’s for taking your children into the workplace and letting them see what you do, giving them ideas for future careers. If her school are doing it, you’re welcome to bring Jinsol here. I don’t think anyone would have a problem with it.”

“Are you trying to steal my daughter?” Chanyeol jokes.

“…no,” Joonmyun almost whines. “But it’s nice to have young faces around.”

Chanyeol researches it when he gets home. Apparently Jinsol’s school will be observing it, in December, for those children with parents with jobs that allow it. It seems that it might be difficult to get many places to accept it so late, so many children will still be going to school like normal.

“Jinsol, do you want to come to work with me one day?” he asks her. “You can see what I do.”

“Yes please!” she squeals. “I know you make music, but I want to see what it’s like.”

“Okay,” Chanyeol says. “I’ll make sure everyone knows.”

“Yay!” Jinsol says. “I haven’t seen Joonmyun-ahjussi in a long time.”

“I have other colleagues too. You’ll like Yebin. She’s really young and really pretty, with this really nice pastel pink hair,” Chanyeol explains. “Then there’s Hyojin—she’s super cool! And Yoongi and Jihoon are both tiny and soft, like teddy bears—though I don’t think either would let us cuddle them. Maybe you, but not me.”

“Daddy, you’re silly,” Jinsol says, laughing.

“Shh,” Chanyeol jokes. “Don’t let everyone hear that or they’ll start getting ideas!”

It just makes her laugh more, and Chanyeol feels pleased.

\---

Their birthdays arrive before Take Your Children to Work Day. Chanyeol’s is even quieter this year, just a homemade cake from his family and some cupcakes from his colleagues. All he wants for his birthday is for an impossibility to become reality, so he doesn’t really mind. He does make sure that Jinsol has a good time for hers, though.

She’s asked for a party with all her classmates, so Chanyeol ends up asking Baekhyun, an event planner, for help organising it. It’s one thing to plan a party for six people, and another thing entirely to do so for a classful of eight year olds.

“Easy!” Baekhyun says. “This isn’t my first time organising a party for kids. Leave it up to me.”

So Chanyeol does, and is pleasantly surprised at what Baekhyun does; he books a piece of grassland and decorates it in pink, purple and blue balloons and streamers, and natural confetti. The ground is clean enough for the children to sit on, but there are also benches for the food. He’s organised party food, though Kyungsoo’s mother made the cake (strawberry, Jinsol’s favourite). There are party games to play, easy things for children to understand. Dogs are allowed, so Toben plays about the place, rolling around and having a good time. It seems fun.

Children and their parents arrive over the first thirty minutes of the party, some with wrapped presents and some with food or cards. The parents who know Chanyeol trust him enough to look after their children for a few hours, but parents who have never met him before hover around, watching their children. Chanyeol finds himself chatting to a few of them, trying to reassure them, even though he’s grateful for the supervision, because he can’t possibly watch all of them at once. One, Lee Eunsung’s father, he thinks, talks wistfully about misplaced and forgotten dreams. Another one, Oh Yeonjung’s mother, mentions her messy divorce, and Chanyeol winces and introduces the two of them, hoping that they might be able to cheer each other up somehow.

Jinsol runs up to him a little later, after they play pin-the-tail-on-the-unicorn with a gigantic cardboard cut-out (clearly used before, if the multiple puncture holes are anything to go by, but none of the children are at all bothered). To match the game, her party hat has become a sparkly purple unicorn horn. She’s carrying a slice of cake that Kwon Heejin’s father cut for her, and she hands it to Chanyeol with a large smile on her face. “Here, Daddy,” she says, and then hugs his stomach.

“Everything good?” Chanyeol asks.

“I miss Daddy, but yes,” she says. “Thank you. This is really fun.”

Chanyeol kneels and hugs her back. “I miss him too,” he whispers into her hair. “But it’ll be alright. You’ll see.”

\---

Take Your Children to Work Day is just after Jinsol’s birthday.

Chanyeol’s already told Jinsol’s school, and obviously Joonmyun is okay with it, so they head to the studio early, because Chanyeol had wanted to prepare her for everything.

Jeongguk is sitting on Yoongi’s desk, swinging his legs, when Chanyeol and Jinsol arrive at work. Yoongi, his hair suddenly as pastel pink as Yebin’s hair, seems to be ignoring him, his headphones stretching around Jeongguk’s back, but otherwise no part of him interacting with Jeongguk at all.

“Hello,” Chanyeol says in surprise.

“Hi!” Jeongguk says, grinning. “I heard there was going to be a child! I love children! Hi!” He says this last part to Jinsol, waving at her. His eyes are in crescents due to how happy he is.

Jinsol, despite still being shy around strangers, beams back at him. Chanyeol isn’t surprised; Jeongguk is still incredibly endearing, even to him. He is very easy to like, and that clearly works on eight year olds too.

“Jeongguk, have you thought about working here?” Chanyeol asks mildly. “I see you just as often as I see Yoongi.”

Jeongguk stares at him with wide eyes. “No, no, I’m just here to improve team morale!” he says, and he loops his arms around Yoongi’s neck, pulling him in for a hug. Yoongi splutters in surprise but goes mostly willingly, allowing his face to be pressed into Jeongguk’s stomach. Chanyeol grins.

“Jinsol, this is Jeongguk, and the person he’s currently suffocating is Yoongi. They’re…” Chanyeol pauses, to think of the appropriate word. “…close,” he decides.

“Hi,” Jinsol says, to both of them. Yoongi, headphones knocked off his head, nods over to her. Jeongguk beams some more.

“Jinsol, you said? My hyung in the army had a daughter called Jinsol.”

“My dad’s in the army!” Jinsol pipes up.

It’s as Jinsol says this that Chanyeol realises he’s never actually talked about Kyungsoo around Jeongguk. He’s not really sure how to explain his and Kyungsoo’s relationship to someone new. His co-workers have always known they’re best friends who live together.

“Huh,” Jeongguk says, and Chanyeol twitches, until Jeongguk continues with, “that’s so weird. Maybe they’re the same person. Do I know your dad?”

“He’s called Kyungsoo!” Jinsol says.

“Wow!” Jeongguk says, grinning. “It’s a small world! That’s totally my hyung!” He grins as Chanyeol’s surprise visibly shows on his face. It really _is_ a small world. “I could tell stories about him, if you’d like that?” He turns to Chanyeol as he says this, silently asking permission, and Chanyeol nods.

It turns out that, in the army, Kyungsoo is very strong, very quiet, and very admired. “He’s a really cool guy, your dad,” Jeongguk says. “He’s just as strong as I am—” here he flexes. He’s _very_ strong, “—and he’s a really good shot. He also makes the best ramyeon. I was jealous.”

“How was the army for you?” Chanyeol asks.

Jeongguk shrugs. “It was a time I’ll never get back,” he says. “I could have had it worse, Kyungsoo-hyung could have it worse. Being fit probably helped a lot. What was the army like for you, Yoongi-hyung?” He turns to face his back. “You’re so tiny, I can’t imagine you shooting or doing all the intensive labour.” 

Yoongi has one headphone off his ears. He frowns. “I can’t say I enjoyed it,” he says. “Too much work.”

Jeongguk laughs. “Not surprised,” he says cheerfully. He runs a hand up Yoongi’s back, who very obviously shivers. Jeongguk doesn’t seem to notice.

It’s at this point that Hyojin arrives, headphones even bulkier than Yoongi’s around her neck and a lollipop in her mouth, so Chanyeol politely extricates them from the conversation. Jeongguk wraps himself back around Yoongi easily, and Jinsol giggles.

Jinsol seems to like Hyojin, Yebin and Jihoon, when they all arrive, and they’re all friendly to her. Yebin lifts her up onto her lap to show her what she’s working on, some kind of acoustic pop song with lyrics about growing up from a young girl to a woman.

“There’s a girl group your dad, Jihoon-oppa and I have been working for,” she says. “This is one of the songs for their debut album.”

“Wow, that’s _so cool_ ,” Jinsol whispers, very seriously. Chanyeol grins.

When it’s Jihoon’s turn, he asks her for her opinion on three songs. “Which of these do you like the most?” he asks, and puts some headphones on her ears, in order to play her the songs. They’re so much bigger than her that it’s almost funny. Jihoon helps hold them in place.

Jinsol clearly doesn’t like the second song at all, so Jihoon audibly closes the file with a little bit of a grumble (even though Chanyeol knows he has save files of every step he took along the way). Chanyeol laughs from over by his own computer. He’s making a hip-hop song for the same girl group, because they’re versatile, and their management haven’t decided which image they’ll be debuting with yet. He hasn’t played it for Jinsol, because he is already sure she won’t like it.

When Joonmyun arrives, late for work and clearly half-dressed, Jinsol scolds him gently. “Joonmyun-ahjussi,” she begins, quietly. “Why is your shirt inside-out?”

Chanyeol is suddenly pleased he brought her up so well that she didn’t say it loud enough to be embarrassing. Most of their colleagues aren’t paying the slightest bit of attention to Joonmyun.

Joonmyun blushes. “Thank you, Jinsollie. I’ll just—” He vanishes as quickly as he’d arrived, and comes back ten minutes later, when Hyojin is showing Jinsol how to mix a song, much more put-together. “Sorry about that. The dog got out. Had to chase after her because Eunji wouldn’t.”

“I can sympathise,” Chanyeol says.

They all eat together at lunch, wherein Jeongguk tells them more stories about Jinsol’s dad, and complains every time they ask him why he’s still there, and in the afternoon Yoongi explains different genres of music to Jinsol (and Jeongguk, who is _possibly_ pretending not to understand anything, if his, “But what’s _house_ music?” whine is anything to go by), and then tries to explain why she should like hip-hop. Chanyeol thinks he might _actually_ have converted her a little by the end of the day.

Chanyeol has never had so much fun at work before.

“Are Yoongi-oppa and Gukkie-oppa dating?” Jinsol asks as they head home.

Chanyeol laughs. “No,” he says. “They should be though, right?”

“I thought they were…” she says. “Why aren’t they?”

“Love is very complicated, Jinsol,” Chanyeol says, and he sighs. “When you’re best friends, changing your friendship by bringing love into the mix is really hard. I think they’re scared of telling each other because it might change everything too much.”

Chanyeol doesn’t understand the look on Jinsol’s face as he says this. It’s like she’s seen the world, but nobody else sees it the way she does. (Her way probably makes more sense, to be honest.)

\---

Apparently eight is the age that some girls get into makeup, which is not a thing Chanyeol would have known without Jinsol coming back from spending a weekend at Yura’s (something unusual in itself) armed to the teeth with kiddie beauty products.

“Daddy,” she says, very seriously, “can I make you look beautiful?”

Chanyeol turns from where he’s making dinner for the both of them, and says, “Well, when you ask like that, how can I say no?”

She has him sit down on the floor, because although she’s a tall kid, she isn’t tall enough to reach properly when he’s sitting on the kitchen chairs. She joins him there, kneeling, and then carefully points out all the colours on the palettes and explains what they are.

“Auntie says that these are for cheeks, and these are for lips, and these are for eyes,” she says, and dips the brush into the one that’s the brightest pink. “I’m going to put this on your cheeks.” She does so. It’s a slightly sticky feeling, and Chanyeol doesn’t really know if it’s supposed to feel like that. He doesn’t say anything.

“If you wait a moment, it’ll dry,” Jinsol continues, with all the confidence of an eight year old.

She narrates what she’s doing as she does it, which helps a lot. Chanyeol starts by nodding, and then gets scolded, so he turns to humming to confirm his understanding.

Jinsol still likes bright colours, especially blue, so Chanyeol ends up with pink lipstick and blue eyeshadow, which is par for the course. She takes multiple photos with clips in his hair, pulling it back so the makeup can be seen better, before even allowing him to see a mirror.

“I think you look very pretty, Daddy,” she says.

Chanyeol thinks he looks like a clown, but he likes it. “Thank you,” he says. “Just don’t show those photos to my parents, or to your Dad. They can be our secret.”

“Too late,” she chirps. “I sent Granny a copy already.”

Chanyeol buries his head in his arms and groans. His mother’s going to _love_ them.

\---

It’s the middle of February, and Kyungsoo has a day of holiday. Unfortunately, he knows from letters that Chanyeol and Jinsol have gone on a trip, so he won’t be able to go and see them. It’s disappointing, and he’s almost desperate to touch Chanyeol, but it can’t be helped.

Instead, he goes to visit his mother, who squeals when she opens the door and pulls him in for a hug. “Oh, it’s my handsome owl!” she coos.

“Mum,” Kyungsoo grumbles, and she lets go of him and holds him at arms’ length.

“Have you got stronger?” she asks.

“Yeah,” Kyungsoo says, because a year of weapons training will do that to a person.

“You look good!” she says, and rushes to grab her camera. Kyungsoo sighs and lets her do what she wishes, though he _does_ smile in some of the photos. He’s not entirely sure he’s supposed to in army fatigues.

“Oh!” she says, ten minutes later, when she’s settled him down in front of the television and is heating up some tofu jjigae for lunch. “Chanyeol sent me this video of Jinsol on Facebook. I’ll get it for you.”

She pulls up her old laptop and logs in, navigating to the right page quickly and turning it to face him.

The post simply states _Look at our girl go!_. Kyungsoo starts the video, whilst his mother heads back into the kitchen.

They’re at the racing track of a school, but not Jinsol’s, surrounded by other parents and children. Chanyeol must have been close to the finish line, because when the camera swings to the start line, Kyungsoo can barely recognise Jinsol due to how far away she is. “That’s our girl, in the red shorts!” Chanyeol’s voice says, and zooms in a bit. She becomes a little clearer. “She’s so good at this.” There’s a pause. “This is the final heat—Jinsol swept the previous ones. She told me this morning she’s going to take this one, too. I don’t know how she can be so confident at seven?”

It must have been earlier in the year, because she’s eight now. Kyungsoo had missed her birthday, and Chanyeol’s. He hadn’t even been able to celebrate his own. He’s twenty-six. He feels terrible.

Kyungsoo watches like a hawk as his daughter gets into her starting position, close to the ground, and waits for the whistle. When it comes, she’s off like a rocket, her long, strong legs propelling her forward easily. There’s a girl from another school, in yellow shorts and socks, who is right on Jinsol’s tail, almost neck-and-neck for most of the lap. Jinsol pulls back a little, allowing the other girl to overtake, and then rocket launches herself ahead and over the line, snatching the win from under the other girl’s feet.

Everyone in the audience, who had been shouting and cheering on their preferred child, starts whooping and applauding.

“—see that?” Chanyeol asks, the first part of his sentence lost in the noise of the crowd around them. “That’s the first time she’s ever done that. I almost thought she was going to come second. And I mean, that would be fine—she’s doing amazingly as it is. But this is—” He chuckles.

“Yeah,” Kyungsoo responds softly, although Chanyeol, in video-form, can’t hear him. Kyungsoo’s never seen her race before. He has no idea how she even managed it—her timing was _perfect_. “I can’t believe it either.”

There’s a little bit more of the video; Jinsol heading up onto a little makeshift podium made out of what looks like painted wooden boxes. The girl in yellow is on one side of her, and a third girl, this time in blue, on the other. Jinsol’s awarded a little gold medal and a pretty bunch of flowers, and stands there beaming at the crowd. Kyungsoo can see Chanyeol’s done her hair in plaits that are starting to escape their ties, stray wisps flying around her head. Chanyeol has always been better at doing her hair than Kyungsoo, who puts it down to having a sister, but even he can’t compete with the wind.

When the ceremony is over, she jumps down and runs over to Chanyeol, shouting, “Hi Daddy!” up into the camera. “Did you see me win?”

Kyungsoo knows she’s talking to Chanyeol, hears him respond, but for some reason his heart still hurts, and he has to blink away tears. He wishes he had been there, to tell her how wonderfully she did, how proud he is of her. How proud _Daddy_ is. But he wasn’t there. He was probably cleaning guns and hefting muskets, like he always is.

He realises, just then, that he wants this—to be with them—so badly. He doesn’t quite know how he’s going to cope for another ten months. It seems like an interminable age, and he can’t quite see the end.

He also hopes it won’t end badly. There is so much that could happen while he’s away, and Chanyeol getting a girlfriend is one of them.

\---

Late February, the production team hold a party. The girl group that Chanyeol, Jihoon and Yebin (an odd team with entirely different musically styles, but one that _works_ ) had been working on had released their full album, and it had stormed the charts. Jihoon’s song, the one chosen for their promotional single, (coincidentally Jinsol’s favourite of the three songs he’d played for her) had been a triple threat, snatching chart and music show wins from more senior and generally public-friendly girl groups and popular boy groups with gigantic, obsessive fandoms. Their celebration is very well-earned.

They’ve all invited guests, except Chanyeol. Both Baekhyun and Jongdae had been busy, and everyone else that he likes is already here.

But it’s a nice mix of people. There’s Joonmyun’s wife; about as tall as Joonmyun in heels and utterly beautiful. Chanyeol’s met her a few times, but constantly forgets her name (Eun…joo? Eunwon?). There are also some of Joonmyun’s other friends—Jongin, Sehun, Soojung, both Joohyuns, Sunggyu, Kyuhyun and Changmin, and some more Chanyeol’s never learnt the names to.

Jihoon’s invited a gaggle of friends. Chanyeol recognises Seungcheol, Jeonghan, Minhyun, Nayoung, Mingyu and Eunwoo from previous visits to their office, but can’t put names to the others. He smiles at a guy who has pink hair, who has been nursing the same glass of Prosecco all evening, one of Jihoon’s desk plushies under his arm, and is watching everyone, a small grin on his face. Chanyeol is pretty sure that he’s filming the others at times, and decides he likes him. He makes a mental note to go and chat to him later.

(He does. He’s called Joshua and has nice teeth, and a wealth of incriminating footage of Jihoon pranking his friends. Chanyeol _definitely_ likes him.)

Hyojin’s with a mixture of people from all different friendship groups, including a couple of underground rappers she performs with. She’s got a good following under the name Elly, he recalls. There’s a younger girl who keeps hanging onto her every word, eyes wide like saucers, and Chanyeol grins.

Jeongguk and Yoongi are together as always, the younger draped, as usual, around Yoongi’s shoulders like a shawl, alongside some other men. Of the lot of them (sometimes six and sometimes four, as Mingyu keeps flitting between Jihoon, Jeongguk, and Hyojin’s starry-eyed fangirl, and one of the others is clearly friends with Jongin and Sehun, like the epitomes of social butterflies), Chanyeol only knows Namjoon a little—he’s younger, but both an underground rapper and a very talented producer himself, who works for another company—a bigger one than their own, with more staff and what seems like less affection in its ranks. Joonmyun’s tried poaching him before, and Chanyeol watches him separate himself from his wife to head over and try again. Namjoon would be an asset to their company. It’s not like they couldn’t afford his salary.

Of the five of them who Chanyeol works with, it’s Yebin’s friends he knows the least about. They’re almost all girls, and just about as young as she is. There are a couple of girls who he’s pretty sure are not old enough to drink, because they keep getting gently steered away from any alcohol by Suyeon, the oldest of their friendship group, and Huihyeon, a talented lyricist Chanyeol’s worked with before.

“Hi,” Chanyeol hears, and he turns to see a pretty girl, with large and expressive eyes and long and wavy dark hair.

“Hi,” Chanyeol greets back. “I’m Chanyeol. I’m one of the producers.”

“I’m Sohee,” she says. “I’m friends with Seungri and Huihyeon.” She nods over to the dark haired boy, who is laughing at something Yebin just said.

Sohee is funny, and glamorous, and beautiful, and one thing leads to another.

“Do you want to get out of here?” she asks, with a smile, when the night seems to be drawing to a close.

He may not have done this in a while, but the feelings are instinctive. Sohee is gorgeous, and Jinsol’s at Kyungsoo’s mother’s for the weekend. There’s nothing that says Chanyeol needs to go back home before tomorrow night.

“Yeah,” he says. “I’d like that.”

\---

It becomes a habit. If one of them is lonely, or horny, they’ll contact each other. It’s more of a booty call than anything else—they never go on dates together. They agreed, after the first night, that it was going to be temporary, with no strings attached. A bit of fun. But Chanyeol still enjoys every moment they have together.

So he makes a lapse of judgement. He offers his place, as well as hers, for their trysts together.

The first time Sohee takes up his offer to come over, he goes on a frantic tidying-up spree an hour before she’s supposed to arrive. He puts all Jinsol’s things in her room, all Kyungsoo’s things in his, all his own things in his own room. He leaves his shoes by the front door, just so the policy is clear.

He cleans the bathroom, tidies up his bedroom and does the laundry, and then heads through to the kitchen.

Some time ago, Kyungsoo’s _goodbye_ got eaten into a magnetic shopping list. But his _love you_ has survived, sitting proud where he left it over a year ago. Chanyeol remembers watching him stand and smile at the fridge, when he saw that the message is still there. Sometimes even Chanyeol smiles at it.

Even though they’re not dating, Chanyeol knows that leaving it there would mean Sohee questioning who left it. He still feels guilty as he destroys the message, jumbling up the letters with the others and adding them to the bottom of the shopping list: _taro_ , _detergent_ , and a note to get some ingredients for _hotteok_.

Jinsol is with Sunny’s parents for the weekend, so Chanyeol settles on the sofa, waiting for Sohee with open arms.

When she explores the house and doesn’t comment on any stray clothes that don’t belong to Chanyeol, he thinks he’s done a good job of making the house nice, and feels pretty proud of himself.

Her kisses help, too.

\---

Summer breezes in without any notice. Suddenly Kyungsoo’s been gone for three quarters of his time in the army, and has mere months left. He’s due back in late December, which, after all this time, doesn’t seem like that much longer.

Chanyeol uses the opportunity of the heat to take Jinsol to Incheon for a quick break. It’s their second holiday that year (the first in February to visit Chanyeol’s grandparents, who are on the other side of Korea, and who _loved_ Jinsol), and Jinsol hasn’t been to a beach in years.

The beach is full of other families with the same idea; little girls and boys playing with their parents, lazy teenagers lying around half-dressed, and plenty of people in the sea, swimming and riding surfboards. Jinsol begs him to rent one, and he agrees, stashing their belongings in a beachside locker and then showing her how to use the board.

She falls in. Every single time. But she’s clearly having so much fun that Chanyeol thinks it was the best 14,700₩ he’s ever spent.

When she’s had enough, they swim about for a bit, until she clearly has better things on her mind.

“Daddy, can we get some ice cream? It’s _so hot_.”

“Sure,” Chanyeol says, and they go and collect their belongings from the locker. Once they’re dressed again, they wander around until they find an ice cream stall, and get two big vanilla ice creams.

“Do you think Daddy would like this?” Jinsol asks, as they eat their ice creams.

Chanyeol thinks about it for a moment. Kyungsoo is a naturally tan person, from spending a lot of his youth outdoors. He doesn’t look it, but he’s always been a little athletic. But in saying that, Chanyeol doesn’t even know if Kyungsoo can _swim_. “Maybe,” he decides, “though I can guarantee he’d not have got on that surfboard with you. And he’d probably have worn a t-shirt the whole time.”

“Aww,” she says. “We’ll have to bring Daddy with us, next time.”

Chanyeol grins down at her. “We sure will.”

\---

The final four months until December, when Kyungsoo’s coming home, pass in a flurry.

Chanyeol takes Jinsol and her friends out on trips; sometimes alone, sometimes with another parent or two tagging along. They visit zoos, more beaches, and even a circus once (it turns out that Jinsol _loves_ clowns. Hyeyeon? Not so much. And the less said about Yena’s reaction, the better). They even take them shopping, making sure they have warm winter clothes and jackets for the cold winter months. Chanyeol loves every minute of it.

Jinsol visits Chanyeol at work more often these days, always trying to see if she can hear Yebin’s music before it’s released, and checking up on whether Jeongguk and Yoongi are dating yet (they’re not).

Chanyeol’s twenty-seventh birthday passes quietly, as it has for the past few years. He wonders when ageing stopped being exciting, and presumes it was when it became exciting for Jinsol.

For Jinsol’s ninth birthday (she’s _nine_! Chanyeol internally freaks out), Chanyeol buys her her first ever music player; a little old thing he fills with bubble-gum pop and child-friendly ballads. She treasures it, but it does mean the car is a lot poppier than usual.

Chanyeol loves Jinsol, and loves their friends, and loves the time they have together, but he can’t wait for Kyungsoo to be home. Nobody knows him the way Kyungsoo does, and it’ll be a relief to just slot back into their friendship. To let Kyungsoo take over a little, so he can rest. He’s looking forward to it every day he ticks off the calendar.

\---

Even as they prepare for Kyungsoo’s return; they repaint the walls, get the sofas cleaned, and make sure everything is where it should be, Chanyeol can’t help but keep his trysts with Sohee going. She’s an excellent distraction tool. Sometimes he even forgets to cross the days off on the calendar.

And yet.

It’s a Friday morning, late during the Christmas holidays, and Chanyeol is lazing in bed half-asleep with Sohee beside him, when the front door opens. Chanyeol jerks upright. “I’m home!” comes Kyungsoo’s voice. “Finally!”

But that can’t be right. Chanyeol wasn’t expecting him back for another week, until post-Christmas. He was supposed to surprise him by being there, after worming the address out from Kyungsoo’s mother. Even though Kyungsoo hadn’t let him see him off, seeing him get discharged—that’s a different matter. And yet he’s _here_.

Chanyeol leans over the side of the bed, trying not to dislodge Sohee too much as he picks up a pair of sweatpants and pulls them on. It’s futile—either moving or the noise from outside the bedroom has woken her up.

“What’s going on?” she asks, still half asleep.

“My flatmate’s back from the army,” Chanyeol says. “He’s early.”

She looks at him with confused eyes as he scrambles to put on a t-shirt. He turns away and hurries out of the room and into the hallway.

“Hey,” Chanyeol says, scratching his neck sheepishly and hoping Kyungsoo can’t see the love-bites on his collarbones.

Kyungsoo looks—Chanyeol can’t explain it, but he looks different. Bigger, more confident, more sure of himself. His hair is longer now, having grown back a bit more after the second or third buzz of his hair, and he’s finally in civilian clothes, which suggests that he stopped off at his parents’ house on the way here.

“Hey,” Kyungsoo responds in kind, and takes a few steps forward into their home.

Chanyeol can’t help himself, and he reaches out to pull Kyungsoo into a hug. He finds himself clutching at the material at Kyungsoo’s back, dragging him even closer. He’s missed him. He can’t believe he’s back, that he’s not going away again. Thoughts are all jumbled in his mind, and he doesn’t quite know how to articulate them.

“I’ve missed you,” Chanyeol finally manages, face pressed into Kyungsoo’s neck.

“Me too,” Kyungsoo whispers.

When they break apart, Chanyeol still holding onto Kyungsoo’s shoulder like he’s going to leave again, Kyungsoo looks around Chanyeol, and seems confused. “Where’s Jinsol?”

“Oh,” Chanyeol says. “Um, she’s at my parents’ place. Sorry she’s not here to welcome you back.”

“That’s okay, we can go there together,” Kyungsoo says with a smile. “It’ll be nice to see them again.”

And then—“Who’s Jinsol?” Sohee asks, standing in the doorway into the sitting room.

She’s got dressed, in jeans and a t-shirt, covering up some of the marks he’d left on her skin, and Chanyeol thinks she might have even put a little bit of makeup on, but he can’t be sure.

Kyungsoo stills, looking at her with surprise written into his features.

Chanyeol opens his mouth to speak, to say—he doesn’t know what he’s going to say, because he tidies up Jinsol’s things every time Sohee comes around. He thinks that she might have an inkling that he has a child—sometimes he misses toys or shoes—, but he just doesn’t bring it up.

Kyungsoo beats him to it, anyway. “Our daughter,” he says.

It’s not like he’s wrong, but Chanyeol wonders why he couldn’t have used another possessive pronoun for once. Even—even taken responsibility and called her _his_. Chanyeol would have been okay with that.

Sohee’s look of surprise quickly matches Kyungsoo’s. “Oh,” she says softly. “Um, I’m Sohee.”

“Kyungsoo,” Kyungsoo responds. He turns to Chanyeol. There’s a look in his eyes that is unlike any Chanyeol’s ever seen before. He can’t place it. “I’m going to pick Jinsol up,” he says. “Bye.”

Before Chanyeol can respond, he turns, grabs the car keys from the bowl on the side table, slides his feet into his shoes, and leaves. He doesn’t slam the door behind him, but Chanyeol thinks he would feel better if he had.

“Oh,” Sohee repeats.

It’s not her fault—if anything, it’s his, for not checking the calendar—but Chanyeol finds himself clenching his fists anyway, so he doesn’t say something he shouldn’t.

“I recognise the look in his eyes,” she continues. “Was I helping you cheat?”

That surprises him. Both the words, and her lack of disgust. “What?” Chanyeol asks, looking at her with wide eyes.

“Chanyeol, he called her _our daughter_. Not _yours_ , not _mine_ , but _ours_.”

“Well, I mean, yeah, she is?” Chanyeol asks, shrugging.

“The way you hugged him—and he referred to this as ‘home’, so I know it’s not over.” Sohee shakes her head. “I always knew this had a timeline,” she continues. “It had an ending point. I just wish you’d told me why. I’ve had a great time, Chanyeol. But I’ve been cheated on before. I know what it feels like.” She leans up and gives him a kiss, one last one. She’s already collected her things together, liked she’d already known this was the end.

“I’m sorry,” Chanyeol says, almost by rote. He isn’t completely sure what he’s apologising for.

“I’m not the person you should be apologising to,” she responds.

And then she, too, slides on her shoes, grabs her coat, and is gone.

Chanyeol stares at the back of the front door and wonders what he’s going to do now.

\---

Kyungsoo tries to calm himself down during the short drive to Chanyeol’s parents’ house. It’s not like he has the right to be feeling angry, or even possessive. They’re not _dating_ , after all. But he _is_ angry. Chanyeol was so easily playing romance with a beautiful woman who didn’t even know about his daughter, _their_ daughter. Was he ever going to tell her? Surely she deserved to know, just as Jinsol deserves to know, if it’s serious.

And Kyungsoo—no. It doesn’t bear thinking about.

Chanyeol’s mother opens the door when he arrives. “Welcome back, son,” she says, and reaches out to hug him. “It’s been such a long time since I last saw you. Come in and tell us how it was.”

He’d say it was good to be back, but, right now, it isn’t. “Hi, Ma,” Kyungsoo says, and hugs her back. She may not be his real mother, but she has always loved him as if she is. It makes the residual anger settle a little.

Even so, he blinks away angry tears as he pulls back. She may not know what they’re for, but she pats his cheek affectionately anyway. “Everything will be okay now you’re back,” she says, as she steps aside to let him in. It helps.

The dog, spotting his escape, darts behind Kyungsoo’s legs, so Kyungsoo scoops him up quickly. He’s grown big and heavy. Kyungsoo hasn’t seen him since Chanyeol adopted him, but he’s heard lots of stories—apparently he’s an excitable, cuddly, thick, attempted-escape artist ( _attempted_ because he never actually manages it). “No,” Kyungsoo says. “Bad Toben.”

At his voice, louder inside the house, Jinsol rushes out from the sitting room, tackling him. She’s grown taller. She’ll be nearing his shoulders soon. “Dad!” she says, which is also new. Kyungsoo guesses nine year olds are too old for ‘Daddy’.

“Hey, Jinsol,” Kyungsoo says, and he hands Toben to Chanyeol’s mother before hugging her back. “How are you?”

“I’m great now you’re back,” she says. “Is this it? Are you back forever now?”

Kyungsoo thinks about Sohee’s pretty face, and says, “I hope so.”

\---

Kyungsoo, Jinsol, and the dog arrive home hours later, after 10pm. Chanyeol’s been waiting for some time, not sure if he should get food ready for them. He’s glad he didn’t.

“Hey,” Chanyeol says softly when Kyungsoo comes in. Jinsol waves, yawning, and Kyungsoo, ignoring Chanyeol, pushes her towards her bedroom. The fact it’s almost normal, _almost_ , makes Chanyeol feel like Kyungsoo never left.

Once he’s checked that Jinsol’s in bed, Kyungsoo comes out and sits on their sofa. Chanyeol settles awkwardly beside him, Toben instantly jumping up onto his lap the moment he’s sat down—missing the mood, as always. “Why are you so angry?” he asks.

It takes Kyungsoo a moment. “I’m not angry,” he responds, in the exact tone of voice people use when they say ‘I hate you’. “I’m disappointed. Disappointed that you didn’t tell your girlfriend about your daughter.”

“She’s not my girlfriend. It wasn’t…it wasn’t serious,” Chanyeol tries to explain. “I don’t want to introduce our daughter to someone who isn’t going to stick in our life. I _knew_ it wasn’t serious.”

“And yet you brought her into our home,” Kyungsoo says.

“Yeah, sure,” Chanyeol says. “And deliberately when Jinsol wasn’t here. I don’t want to hurt her by introducing her to people who aren’t staying. It’s over now. You don’t need to worry anymore.”

Kyungsoo sighs. “Okay,” he says, though Chanyeol thinks it probably isn’t; he just doesn’t want to get in a fight this soon after coming home. Maybe. 

There’s a pause, as neither of them can think of what to say. Kyungsoo breaks this when he rests his head on the back of the sofa, and sighs. “It’s weird being home.”

Chanyeol reaches over and gently touches the back of Kyungsoo’s hand. When Kyungsoo doesn’t move, or say anything, Chanyeol takes it in his, slotting his fingers between Kyungsoo’s. “I can imagine,” he says. “But it’s nice to have you back.”

The squeeze of his hand is acknowledgement enough.

\---

Kyungsoo came home so close to Christmas that there’s little time to buy him anything, so Chanyeol decides to put his and Jinsol’s (very average) baking skills to good use by baking gingerbread cookies. Kyungsoo likes gingerbread.

When Kyungsoo’s out visiting friends, Chanyeol and Jinsol run about, getting the ingredients together. Jinsol hates wearing an apron, so Chanyeol wears it instead, grimacing as flour ends up spilling all down her front and covering her clothes in fine white dust. It’ll wash out, but if they don’t clean it up quickly enough it’ll give away the surprise. (They somehow manage anyway.)

This year’s Christmas was always going to be a quiet affair, but now Kyungsoo’s back, Chanyeol’s parents invite the three of them to eat with them last-minute. This means they have to do a morning spot with Kyungsoo’s family to make up for missing Christmas lunch, so after an early breakfast and unwrapping of presents—Chanyeol has spoilt Jinsol, but that’s only natural, and even Kyungsoo’s managed to provide a couple of presents in the two days he’s been back—they head over there to say hello and unwrap more presents. Both Kyungsoo and Chanyeol do reasonably well, for adult men (which means it’s mostly practical things, but that’s what you _want_ as an adult). Finally they head to Chanyeol’s family’s for lunch with his parents, Yura, and her boyfriend.

It’s the first Christmas they’ve had as a _family_ , the three of them; that first year they’d all eaten separately. It’s nice to celebrate like this; sitting around his parents’ fireplace with the dog making contented noises that remind everyone of a cat’s purr, and half falling asleep over a puzzle game.

It might actually be the _best_ Christmas Chanyeol’s ever had, and he can’t help but hope for more.

\---

Suddenly it’s January, which means everyone is back to work.

Like Jeongguk, Kyungsoo takes to showing up at the studio at random times of the day when job-hunting at home gets boring. Joonmyun never seems all that bothered, as long as it doesn’t entirely impede on the collective productivity of his employees (as Kyungsoo usually distracts Chanyeol or Yoongi, but can sometimes be persuaded to distract Jeongguk).

It’s one such day. Yoongi and Kyungsoo are in Yoongi’s personal studio; the one that he uses when working on his own projects. They all have one, but only Yoongi and Jihoon really use theirs; most of them prefer to use the big studio to be sociable. Chanyeol just uses their home studio, if it’s non-work related.

Kyungsoo tilts his head to rest against the back of the spare chair (it’s probably Jeongguk’s). “I forgot how tiring being a parent is,” he says to the ceiling. He’s grateful they’re in a private room and the others aren’t there to hear him complain—getting Jeongguk away from Yoongi for a moment was hard enough. They’d never let him hear the end of it.

“You mean the army didn’t give you enough stamina to cope with a nine year old?” Yoongi asks almost absently, clicking away at his computer.

“No,” Kyungsoo grumbles. “I need coffee.”

Yoongi pushes back his chair as he stands up. “Okay,” he says. “Let’s get some.”

Kyungsoo hadn’t meant right then, but he isn’t about to turn away free coffee. He heaves himself to his feet and follows Yoongi into the kitchen.

Yoongi gets two mugs out of the cupboard and puts the kettle on to boil. “At least Chanyeol seems like a pretty caring dad,” he says, almost reluctantly. “I guess?”

Kyungsoo knows that Yoongi likes Chanyeol for the best part, so he’s not _too_ offended on his behalf. It’s almost by rote, for _image_ , that he says, “Hey, only I’m allowed to complain.”

“It wasn’t a complaint!” Yoongi assures him. “I may not have expected it from him, but he’s definitely a good dad. He’s so open and caring. You’re lucky.”

“People keep saying that,” Kyungsoo says, “I don’t know what you _mean_. Am I lucky because he takes a weight off my shoulders? He was doing this when I wasn’t even around, so it’s not like he’s helping _me_.”

“I didn’t entirely mean that,” Yoongi says, as he busies himself with making coffee. They both like it the same way—black, and strong. “I just meant that you’re lucky you— _have_ someone like Chanyeol.”

It takes Kyungsoo a moment for the subtle implication to sink in, and the moment it does, he panics. Is he that obvious? He must be, because people have been commenting on it for far too long now. Yoongi just doesn’t usually bring it up. “We’re not like that,” he says, flapping his arms in front of him, trying to make Yoongi believe him.

It doesn’t work. “What, seriously?” Yoongi actually turns properly to face him, eyebrows drawn high on his forehead. “Have you _still_ not told him how you feel?”

Kyungsoo groans. “No, look, it’s not—”

“Come on, Kyungsoo,” Yoongi interrupts him. “Don’t give me that. Talk to me. If anyone can understand you, it’s me.” He turns back to their coffee. “I honestly thought you were together now.”

“We’re not,” Kyungsoo says. “And that’s rich, coming from you.”

“It’s…complicated,” Yoongi mumbles.

“How? Jeongguk _adores_ you,” Kyungsoo says. “I have a hard time believing he wouldn’t accept you.”

Yoongi turns pink. _It’s a good look on him,_ Kyungsoo thinks. It makes him seem more approachable. “It’s just…difficult. He…he looks up to me, _admires_ me,” he says. “That’s exactly why we shouldn’t date.”

“What, why?”

“He trusts me. By falling in love with him, I’ve betrayed his trust.”

Kyungsoo tilts his head in surprise. “Shouldn’t you let Jeongguk decide that for himself?”

“I don’t know,” Yoongi murmurs.

Kyungsoo’s response, some kind of _what do you mean_ , is stopped by Joonmyun walking into the kitchen.

“Hi kids,” he says, even though he’s barely older than them. “What are you doing in here?”

“Musing,” Yoongi says.

“Is that code for bonding over unrequited love?” Joonmyun asks, and swipes one of the two mugs of coffee, when both Yoongi and Kyungsoo are stunned into silently blinking in his direction. He proceeds to immediately pour half a jar of milk into it, effectively destroying any interest Kyungsoo had in it. “One of these days I’m going to make a rule that says you need to sort your love problems before you arrive at the studio, or I’m going to tell them both for you. Don’t think I won’t.”

Kyungsoo winces. “Please don’t,” he says.

“Then you need to tell that boy. Or at least come up with something similar. This is getting frustrating for all of us.”

“I don’t see why,” Kyungsoo mutters. It’s not like his love life is their problem.

“You’re a bad influence, Kyungsoo,” Joonmyun says, perfectly straightforwardly. “If you confess, maybe Yoongi will, too. This isn’t a high school, so stop acting like shy teenagers with their first crush.”

“Hey!”

\---

Kyungsoo is at Chanyeol’s parents’ when news comes out that the new, more liberal President is opening the vote to legalise equal marriage in South Korea.

The news comes as an absolute shock to Kyungsoo, as, at the beginning of the year, an old army mate of his was dishonourably discharged for having a boyfriend, and it took him far too long to find a job that respected that.

“The President has been trying to change the public’s views on gay people for a long time,” Chanyeol’s mother says. “A lot of my friends are now beginning to understand it better because of him.” She smiles. “I think it’s a good thing.”

“Will you vote?” Kyungsoo asks.

“Of course! If you want to change something, you need to do that, at the very least.”

The campaigns for _Yes_ and _No_ touch on very different topics, but they’re nothing Kyungsoo hasn’t heard before, and they’re promoted in the same ways as usual. It just really depends on morality, and who votes.

Kyungsoo just hopes that it’s enough to help change the stigma. So his friend can be allowed to serve the way he deserves. So that Kyungsoo doesn’t constantly feel terrified that living with Chanyeol is a bad thing.

_It could never be a bad thing, could it?_

\---

Kyungsoo wakes up the day after the vote is counted to no fewer than ten texts and emails containing the word _Congratulations_. He works out, fairly quickly, that this means that equal marriage was voted in, finally. That people are starting to care more about others and their rights, in this relatively small country of theirs.

The messages from Chanyeol and Kyungsoo’s families, and from Yoongi, are more direct.

_I hope this means you will get the confidence to say something to Chanyeol._

_If it’s happening more often, nobody will notice or care about you and Chanyeol. Your relationship will be more normal._

_I can’t wait to welcome you into our family officially. Please tell me it will be soon._

Kyungsoo swallows. He appreciates the sentiment, really he does. That his family are rooting for him and Chanyeol to end up together. But he’s just not _sure_ how Chanyeol is going to take it.

Through the door comes the shout, “Kyungsoo, why are people congratulating me? What did I do?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Kyungsoo replies, with a small smile. “Everything’s fine.”

\---

Now he’s back home, Kyungsoo resumes picking up Jinsol from school. Julien is delighted to see him again, and he asks many questions about military service and what it was like.

“I wasn’t born in Korea,” he says, “and neither were my parents, so I never served. I’ve always felt like there’s a divide between me and Korean citizens, so maybe I should serve?”

He seems to find it fascinating, and Kyungsoo does his best to not disillusion him _too_ much. “I don’t think you _need_ to serve,” he says, but doesn’t elaborate. Walls have ears, after all.

Kyungsoo had met Jinsol’s friends before, so they’re not unfamiliar when Jinsol brings them over to see him. But it’s been a long time, and most of them don’t really remember him. After all, to them, Chanyeol is Jinsol’s dad. He’s…someone else.

However, Kyungsoo had never met any of their parents (except Somi’s dad). This changes, when Yena’s mother comes over, presumably to see who this strange person with Jinsol is.

“This is my Dad,” Jinsol says, when she arrives. Yena’s mother just blinks at her. “He’s just back from the army.”

“Do Kyungsoo,” he says, bowing politely.

“Oh,” she says. A pause, and then, moments, later, her eyes lighting up in understanding. “ _Oh_.” She bows as well. “Kim Jinhee,” she responds. “It’s nice to meet you. Welcome back.”

Kyungsoo isn’t entirely sure what she’s understood, but he’s not going to complain about her lack of negative response to…whatever it is.

“It’s good to be back,” he says. “But I think I’ve missed a lot.”

“Don’t worry,” Jinhee says. “I’ll get you up to speed, but first, there’s some others I’d like to introduce you to.”

\---

“Sorry for trying to set you up with friends,” is Hyeyeon’s mother’s greeting next time she sees Chanyeol. “You should have said something. We’d have understood and respected you, instead of continuing.”

Chanyeol blinks. “It’s okay,” he says, because although it had been annoying at first, he’d kind of become used to it, “but thank you?”

His confusion is cleared a moment later, when she continues with, “We met Kyungsoo.”

Oh, of course they did. Though that still doesn’t entirely explain why Kyungsoo coming back made her apologise for trying to make him date.

Though she’s not the first. After all, that was Sohee.

“What a handsome man,” Siyeon’s mother says, “And so polite, too. You’re very lucky.”

Chanyeol furrows his brow in confusion, but decides to accept the compliment regardless. “Thanks. He’s a great father, and Jinsol likes him better than me,” he jokes. “It means I can have a rest sometimes. So yeah, I guess I am, now he’s back.”

He hears the coos, but he doesn’t register them at all.

\---

It’s been a month of winks, of nudges, of people making _suggestions_. Insinuations.

It’s not really anybody’s business but Kyungsoo’s and Chanyeol’s whether they’re in a relationship or not (and they’re not), but their friends and families are trying very hard to convince Kyungsoo why he should at least make some case for _keeping_ Chanyeol.

“What if he eventually gets a girlfriend?” he hears, multiple times. “What if he leaves and takes Jinsol with him?”

“Chanyeol loves you,” Chanyeol’s mother says, one day. “He just needs…convincing. He needs a reason.”

Kyungsoo sighs. “I’m happy just being in his life, with Jinsol. Even if we go our separate ways, she’ll always be my daughter.”

“But would you be happy if you went separate ways?”

It’s a rhetorical question. They both know that the answer is, and has _always_ been, a _no_. Kyungsoo would hate to lose Chanyeol.

“If I confess and he doesn’t accept me, that’ll happen anyway,” he says softly, saying it aloud for one of the first times. “I don’t think he’d cope well.”

“Surely it just depends on how you do it,” she says.

After that, Kyungsoo just keeps thinking about it.

He and Chanyeol have known each other since early years of university—about eight years now. They’ve lived together for all of that, although of course Kyungsoo was in the military for a portion of that.

Kyungsoo knows when to make tea for Chanyeol, and which ice cream helps Chanyeol get through a break-up. Chanyeol knows which songs to play when Kyungsoo is being too quiet, and where to take him in order to make Kyungsoo smile the widest. 

Kyungsoo knows that Chanyeol wrinkles his nose when he’s thinking deeply, and that he loves to sing in the shower. He always claims he’s not as good a singer as he wants to be, so getting him to sing outside the house is difficult, but he’ll sing whenever Kyungsoo begs him to. Kyungsoo thinks they sound nice when they sing together.

It’s often said that soldiers dream of pretty women in order to cope with war. Kyungsoo? Kyungsoo hadn’t gone a day without thinking of Chanyeol. Without dreaming to hold his hand and hug him close to him. Without wishing to hear his voice once more.

Kyungsoo can’t really imagine life without Chanyeol. He thinks that if soulmates really exist, Chanyeol is his. There’s nobody else for him.

Once he’s come to this conclusion, he spends a lot of time, over the next week or so, musing about how to possibly turn his feelings into a reality. This is how Jinsol finds him.

“What are you doing, Dad?” she asks, poking her head around the door.

Kyungsoo sighs. “Nothing,” he says.

“Really?” she asks. “You’ve been kind of funny all week.”

He sighs again. “It’s really nothing. Just thinking about love.”

“With Dad?” She tilts her head. “Are you going to ask Dad to marry you?”

Kyungsoo blinks at her, and then flops backwards onto his bed. “I can’t do that,” he says, staring up at the white ceiling.

“It always works in Disney films,” Jinsol says. “Besides, I think Dad’s lonely. He can’t be lonely if you’re married.”

“It doesn’t work like that in real life,” Kyungsoo responds, before he heaves himself up into a sitting position. Her head’s still cocked to the side in confusion.

“Why not?” she asks. “You and Dad are lonely people who love each other and don’t want to leave each other. I’m your daughter. It’s very tricky to explain that you’re not dating. I think it makes sense.”

For a nine year old, she makes far too much sense. Kyungsoo doesn’t like it. It makes him think too much.

It sounds so simple, so easy, when Jinsol says it. Like he could just propose, for no reason. Like Chanyeol would accept him, even though it would take their relationship to a level far beyond what either of them had ever expected it would.

What would being married to Chanyeol be like, he wonders. Most likely, it’d be the same as now. They’d still be best friends bringing up their daughter together. Just with tax breaks and the law on their side. Kyungsoo could adopt Jinsol legally, becoming her other father permanently. If something happened to either of them, their wills would be connected.

The more he thinks about it, the more logical it becomes. Kyungsoo has always been drawn to logic. Chanyeol is more interested in how things make him _feel_ , but even he doesn’t argue with things that make logical sense.

There are a lot of benefits to getting married. Obviously there are negatives too; divorce being the worst one. Money, their friends being weird about it, the hassle of joining or separating accounts. How horrific it would be if something were to happen to either of them.

But the benefits—comfort, security, companionship, tax breaks, legal breaks, joint accounts, the fact most of their friends think they’re already married (for some reason) and would therefore be less awkward about it, _Jinsol_ —easily outweigh them.

“You know what? I just might,” Kyungsoo announces, one day, when Chanyeol’s out shopping.

“What?” Jinsol asks, looking up from her homework.

“Ask your Dad to marry me.”

The grin that spreads across Jinsol’s face is one of the biggest Kyungsoo’s ever seen. She drops her pencil, slams her hands down on the coffee table, and leans up towards him. “With rings?” she asks.

“Should there be rings?” Kyungsoo asks.

“ _Absolutely yes_ ,” Jinsol says. “Can I come with you to get them?”

Kyungsoo laughs. “You know what? Sure? He’ll probably prefer whatever you pick anyway.”

He hadn’t been entirely positive before he’d mentioned it to Jinsol, but now he’s sure. He’s going to ask Chanyeol to marry him. It’s really happening.

He just has to hope Chanyeol sees the logic in it, too.

\---

Even after he makes the decision, it takes Kyungsoo a little while to get into the right frame of mind to do something so big, so _important_.

“Let’s go shopping,” Kyungsoo says, when he picks Jinsol up from school.

She perks up immediately. “For the rings?”

“Yeah,” Kyungsoo says.

“Okay!”

She’s excited the whole way there, chattering about how jealous she was when one of her classmates’ older sisters got married and she got to wear a really pretty dress. “Will I get to wear a pretty dress, Dad?”

“Of course you will,” Kyungsoo assures her. “You can pick whatever you want.”

They head to the local shopping centre to find the best jeweller. Kyungsoo doesn’t know much about jewellery, but he recognises some of the names advertised, and heads to the shop with the most well-known brand name.

The shop doesn’t just sell jewellery, it sells watches and decorations as well, and Kyungsoo finds himself distracted as he admires a diamond-studded cat statue. Jinsol has her eye on a small dog jewellery box, its collar inlaid with tiny rubies. Kyungsoo makes a mental note to come and get it next time he’s alone, because her grandmothers have been planning on giving her some of their old jewellery, now she’s almost ten and has an interest in it, along with makeup.

“Wait, wait,” Kyungsoo says. “We came in here for a reason, let’s not get distracted.”

The shop’s ring collection is expansive; spanning one whole window. They take their time, looking at all their options, and waving away the shop assistants when they try to help out. There are diamond rings, diamond-studded rings, rings inlaid with gemstones, and then simpler gold, silver, and white-gold options.

“I don’t think your Dad would want a very impressive ring,” Kyungsoo says. “He’d be happier with something plain. Right? Gold?”

“Yeah,” Jinsol agrees, looking at a couple of different plain gold rings. Despite their simplicity, they are both very different; one thicker than the other, and a different shade of gold.

Kyungsoo’s always been told that engagement rings are supposed to cost a lot, but now he’s unemployed, he has a smaller bracket of money to take from; his savings go towards living costs. He’s also not sure that Chanyeol would care how much the rings cost.

“I don’t think I want engagement rings, anyway,” he says, aloud. “I think that wedding bands are more functional. This is either going to happen, or it’s not.”

It doesn’t bear thinking about. He’s got to be _sure_. He won’t do it if he’s not sure that Chanyeol will say yes. He’ll keep the rings for as long as necessary.

“What about these, then?” Jinsol says, indicating her favourites. It’s a small collection of gold and white-gold wedding bands. Plain, understated, simple, and very beautiful.

It takes them another fifteen minutes of trying on the rings, checking them against Kyungsoo’s tan to find the best colour for both he and Chanyeol, before they decide. It’s a simple, thin warm gold ring; something that doesn’t look too bronze or too gilded against either Jinsol or Kyungsoo’s skin tones.

“Do you have two of these?” Kyungsoo asks a shop assistant, who heads into the back store to find a pair.

Kyungsoo was with Chanyeol when the soundwave rings were created, and has a good memory for everything related to Chanyeol, so he knows the measurements of his fingers (which is probably creepy, but right now he’s grateful for this encyclopaedic knowledge). This means that it’s simple to get the rings made up then and there; a squeeze and a stretch of the shop’s machinery makes it so both rings would fit their fingers perfectly.

The rings cost a pretty penny, though not as much as an engagement ring would have cost, and Kyungsoo leaves the shop with a hole in his wallet and a spring in his step.  
They get ice cream from one of the self-serve places, Jinsol pouring a lot of skittles and jelly sweets on top of both of theirs as a nice treat, and then they window shop their way back to the car, pointing out things they like and things they don’t. They spot Yena and Jinhee in the food court, and stop to greet them, catching up briefly before Kyungsoo bids them farewell. “Chanyeol will be home soon, we’d best be getting back.”

Once in the car, they sing along to the radio on their way home, both of them perhaps even _more_ excited than before they went shopping. Perhaps because it was just a theory before, and now it’s a reality. The ring box burns a hole in Kyungsoo’s thigh with promise.

“So, how do you think I should propose?” Kyungsoo asks, when they reach their next red traffic light and Jinsol takes a breath. “If that’s what I’m doing.”

“With flowers and chocolates?” Jinsol suggests. “Or cookies?”

Kyungsoo laughs. “Because a way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, right? Who taught you that?”

“You and Dad did!” she responds.

Kyungsoo pulls out when the traffic light turns green. He’s partway across the intersection when there’s a loud screech of tires, and he doesn’t even have time to turn to look before something hits them. He knows he’s trapped against the car door, but he can’t move. Everything hurts, so much, and there’s just endless _screaming_ , and then nothing.

\---

The phone call comes less than an hour from the end of work, when Chanyeol is partway through rearranging the dance break of the pop song he’s working on, and he doesn’t answer it. It rings until Jihoon notices through his headphones and throws the phone into Chanyeol’s lap.

“Hyung, please answer it,” he grumbles.

Chanyeol heads out into the hallway so he doesn’t disturb them, and then takes a look at the number. He doesn’t recognise it, so he’s a little apprehensive when he answers.

“Is that Chanyeol? You’re listed as Do Kyungsoo’s ICE.”

Chanyeol thinks his heart stops, just for a second, as panic comes crashing down. “Y-yes,” he says, feeling dread rise up through him at that simple word. _ICE_. “What happened?” he asks, trying to calm himself down. _It’s probably nothing_.

It’s not nothing.

“There was a collision. The car Mr Do was driving was struck by another vehicle. He and a young girl in the car with him were both injured.”

Chanyeol’s legs, trembling along with the rest of his body, fail him, and he catches himself on the hallway wall with a heavy thud. He slides down the wall to rest on the floor. “That’s my daughter,” he says. “Her name’s Jinsol. Is she okay? Is Kyungsoo okay?”

“They are currently being assessed in the hospital,” the speaker says. “We just wanted to let you know about the situation, and to find out if there was any important information to tell the medical staff. Is Kyungsoo taking any medications currently?”

“No, no, he’s not, and neither’s Jinsol. Can I—which hospital are they at? Can I come and see them?”

Apparently they need a guardian for Jinsol, so they give him the hospital information quickly and ask him to be there as quickly as possible.

Chanyeol lifts himself off the floor with shaky legs and heads through to Joonmyun’s office.

“Good grief,” Joonmyun says, upon seeing Chanyeol. “You look like you’ve been through the wars.”

Chanyeol raises his hand to his cheeks and realises that they’re sticky with tears. “There was an accident,” he says. “I need—I need to go to the hospital. Now. It’s Kyungsoo and Jinsol.”

“Oh no!” Joonmyun says, the colour draining from his cheeks. He stands and looks like he’s going to hug Chanyeol, but seems to think better of it. Instead, he reaches for the phone. “Of course. Go. I’ll book you a taxi, you’re in no state to drive.”

The taxi comes in no time at all. Jihoon and Yebin look up in confusion when they see Chanyeol race out of the office, but he doesn’t wait to see what Joonmyun tells them. He just tells the driver to go to the hospital.

The drive itself takes far too long, but that’s probably just panic and nerves.

“Keep the change,” he says, thrusting five crumpled 1000₩ notes through the slot in the divider, and then hurtles up the steps to the hospital, almost tripping and sending himself flying. He has to force himself to stop running so he doesn’t cause another accident.

When he can compose himself enough to explain what he wants to the receptionist, he’s directed to the emergency department.

As Jinsol’s guardian, she’s the first person they talk to him about; explaining her mild injuries. She was protected by being on the other side of the car from the impact site, so her injuries are superficial.

“We would like to give her pain medication. Is that alright?”

“Yeah, of course,” Chanyeol says. “Anything to make her feel better.”

They lead him through to where she’s seated, in a small cubicle in the emergency ward.

“Dad!” she says, when she sees him. She looks much better than he’d imagined—only a few bruises and cuts. There’s a bruised stripe up her throat from the impact of the seatbelt, which must hurt, because she keeps touching it and wincing.

“Hey, Jinsollie,” Chanyeol says, sniffing and trying not to cry. She’s okay. His daughter’s okay.

She rushes over to him, even though the nurses haven’t given her the go-ahead. She hugs him tightly. “Have you seen Daddy?” she asks. “They won’t tell me anything.”

“Not yet,” Chanyeol says. “We need to make sure you’re okay first. Be nice to the nurses.”

He loves Jinsol, of course he does, but the amount of paperwork he has to fill in is exhausting, and he twitches every time the nurses give him something new without anyone telling him the status of Kyungsoo.

Finally, after far too long, they tell him Kyungsoo is in a coma.

“He was in the impact range,” the doctor says. “We’re keeping him under observation to make sure he’s stable.”

Chanyeol freezes, because that’s not good at all. “A coma? He can come out of it, right?”

_I can’t lose you. Not like this._

“Many people do,” the doctor assures him. “Your friend is young and healthy, and the collision was minor. That definitely increases his chances.”

“Can we see Daddy?” Jinsol asks.

“His parents will be arriving soon,” the doctor says, without directly responding.

The next time Chanyeol asks, he’s given a very polite, “His family have the right to decide who sees him.”

Chanyeol sinks into his chair, feeling utterly drained and defeated. _Family._

Who gives them the right to say they’re not?

\---

Kyungsoo’s parents arrive less than thirty minutes after the third time Chanyeol begs to see Kyungsoo to appease his anxious fear, and the third polite rejection.

“Why are you out here?” is the first thing Kyungsoo’s father asks, not even a _hello_ or a _how is our son doing?_.

Chanyeol wonders if he looks as awful as he feels. His eyes feel dry, his cheeks sticky from all the crying he’s done. He has to believe Kyungsoo will be okay. He _has_ to. In his arms, Jinsol has cried herself to sleep, the tear tracks obvious. “They won’t let me in,” he says, a lump in his throat. He holds Jinsol closer, resisting the temptation to bury his face in her hair. “They said I’m not family.”

“But you are, though?” Kyungsoo’s mother says, and she grabs at a nearby nurse. “Please let him come through with us, he’s our son’s other half.”

Chanyeol looks up at her with wide eyes. “Ma,” he starts. “That’s—” not right, he wants to say, but the words don’t come out.

He doesn’t notice that the nurse, at Kyungsoo’s parents’ acknowledgement, _finally_ nods her head and allows him to join them. He’s just too busy staring at Kyungsoo’s parents, who are looking at him with soft eyes.

“Oh, Chanyeol, sweetie,” Kyungsoo’s mother says. “You absolutely are.”

Chanyeol looks away again. He doesn’t understand what she means.

“You share a child,” Kyungsoo’s father says. “Our beautiful granddaughter.”

“Kyungsoo and Jinsol just started that themselves,” Chanyeol mumbles. “You know I didn’t know about it for ages.”

“And yet you still let them keep on. You let her call Kyungsoo her father. You let other people call him her father. _You_ call him her father. You didn’t tell people that she wasn’t his.”

Because she _is_. “I just wanted to keep them happy,” Chanyeol protests. “They’re always ganging up on me, I’d never win.”

“Which just shows how much you care,” Kyungsoo’s mother says, soft and fond. “You mean so much to Kyungsoo. We’re so happy that he’s found someone like you. He’s so lucky.”

Chanyeol’s heart swells in a way he can’t describe. It’s warm, but it also hurts, because he hasn’t seen Kyungsoo yet. He doesn’t know if he’s okay, or if he _will_ be okay.

“Come on, let’s go and see him, son,” Kyungsoo’s father says. He gently helps wake Jinsol up, wrapping his arm around her as she orients herself in the room and remembers where she is.

“Grandpa—” she says, eyes watering again.

“It’s okay, little owl. Your Dad’s going to be alright.” He leads her down the corridor after the nurse, and Chanyeol follows, a little dazed.

He breaks down again when he sees Kyungsoo, lying in bed with a breathing tube down his throat and his arm in a cast. He looks so small, so fragile, even though he’s actually the strongest person Chanyeol knows. He’s already starting to bruise, the side that connected with the car door purpling.

Chanyeol has to lean on the wall, for the second time, to keep from falling. He’s not the only one having problems—Kyungsoo’s mother lets out a sob and falls into her husband, who holds her close.

After a moment, Jinsol, who is less teary than Chanyeol had imagined she would be, tugs on Chanyeol’s sleeve. “Would, would True Love’s Kiss help Daddy? He’s asleep, isn’t he? In a sleep that he can’t wake up from? Would a kiss wake him up, like Disney princesses?”

Chanyeol wishes everything were as easy as it is in Disney. “I wish it’d help,” he says, his voice still thick with emotion. “I’d do anything if it’d help. But it won’t help him if he’s got a breathing tube; he can’t breathe on his own.” His breath hitches, and he has to take several breaths to calm himself before he can continue. “The doctors are the only people who can help Daddy. Kissing him would just get in their way.”

She frowns. “Oh,” she says. “I thought it would work.”

He hugs her, gently. “The doctors are doing all they can,” Chanyeol says, when he pulls back. “We just need to have faith in them, and we’ll be able to see Daddy again.”

He’s not entirely sure if he’s trying to convince her, or himself.

\---

Eventually visiting hours end, and Chanyeol can no longer sit in the hallway waiting for news. The nurses assure him and Kyungsoo’s parents that they will know if anything changes during the night, and then they are sent home. He’s not in a critical state, so there’s no desperation for them to be on hand.

That night, Jinsol crawls into Chanyeol’s bed for the first time in a long time, and that’s the only way either of them can get any sleep. Even so, it’s fitful.

The second day passes much the same, but the sleep they get that night is a little more peaceful, as things are looking better for Kyungsoo. The breathing tube is out, and instead, Kyungsoo’s been given a new drip. It’s promising.

_He may even wake up soon._

\---

Everything’s dark, oppressively so. His arms aren’t moving. _Why aren’t they moving?_

Kyungsoo tries harder, but there’s nothing. No feeling in his limbs. His throat is sore, and his head aches.

He tries to remember what happened, where he is, but he draws a blank, and painstakingly opens his eyes.

Now they’re open, suddenly everything is white, and too bright. He squeezes his eyes shut immediately, and then, ever so slowly, opens them again, letting everything settle.

He’s in an empty hospital room. There is a vase of tulips on the bedside table—his mother’s favourites. Next to them is a jug of water and a simple white card with a sick puppy on the cover. It was probably picked out by Jinsol.

He tries to pull himself up to read the card, but there’s still no feeling in his limbs. He looks down, and realises that one arm is in a cast, and the other is connected to a drip that’s next to the bed. He focuses on that arm, and slowly flexes his fingers, until he can feel the bedspread over him. Movement. Good.

It comes back to him in flashes. Going out with Jinsol, for a fun father-daughter afternoon of shopping. Having really nice ice cream. Getting back into the car afterwards, and then heading towards home. Singing along to the radio with Jinsol. Jinsol giving proposal suggestions. Then the screech of tires, the impact. The pain of being trapped against the driver’s door with another car pressed against him.

_Jinsol._

That’s what gets his arm moving, enough to press the buzzer on the side of the bed.

When the nurse enters, he shoots out, “How’s Jinsol? How’s my daughter?”

“Jinsol’s fine,” the nurse says. “Good afternoon, Mr Do. I’m glad you’re awake. Do you remember what happened?”

“A car hit us,” Kyungsoo says.

“It ran a red light,” the nurse says. “They ran into you really hard. You were in a coma for two days. You’ve got a broken arm, and there’s a lot of bruising down your side. You were very lucky not to break or even lose your leg, but as it is, you may just need a little physiotherapy. Jinsol suffered whiplash and bruising, and we checked her over for head injuries, but she seems mostly unharmed. Your partner has been looking after her.”

Kyungsoo tries to nod to show that he’s following, but it hurts too much.

Knowing that Jinsol’s alright, that she’s being looked after, relaxes him to the point that he remembers the rings. He’d put the box into the pocket of his jeans. “The clothes I was wearing,” he says. “Do you have them?”

“Yes,” the nurse says, and leaves for a moment, coming back with a plastic bag. They hand it to Kyungsoo, who fumbles through it one-handedly. “Can I help you?”

“The ring box,” Kyungsoo says. “I need to put it where I can see it.”

“Okay,” the nurse says, taking the clothes from him and fumbling through it until they find the box. “Do you want me to put it here?” they ask, pointing to the table with the flowers on it.

“Please.”

“Are you asking your partner?” the nurse says, but it’s polite rather than intrusive.

“Yeah,” Kyungsoo says. “It seemed right.”

He doesn’t say that if they hadn’t gone out to buy those rings, he would never have been hit by the car.

When he’s left alone to rest a bit more, he thinks on it further. He went to buy the rings to cement his and Chanyeol’s relationship as they brought up Jinsol together. Coming back from buying them, he was almost killed. It was like fate didn’t want Jinsol to have two parents. Or Chanyeol to have someone else.

 _Don’t be stupid_ , he tells himself. _It’s just a coincidence._

And yet he can’t help but hope that Chanyeol will say yes so they can follow through quickly. Just in case. So things like this don’t happen again.

\---

Chanyeol was planning on heading back in to see Kyungsoo the next day, but Joonmyun has other plans. “I’m so sorry,” he says, apologising profusely over the phone. “I wouldn’t do this to you if there was any other option, but we really need someone here for this, and you know it best.”

“I understand,” Chanyeol says. Musical emergencies are just as important, after all.

Once Kyungsoo’s parents pick up Jinsol, he heads into work for the first time since the crash. He works, but it’s more half-hearted than it would be on a normal day. Even so, it does distract Chanyeol a little from the hospital.

He doesn’t wear his headphones even once. Just in case.

\---

It takes a day or so before Kyungsoo feels comfortable having visitors, and it’s only his parents and Jinsol. The nurse was right; Jinsol looks fine, but for a few childhood scrapes, cuts and bruises. There’s a bruise against her throat from the seatbelt and Kyungsoo feels so grateful for it. She seems to be wearing her pyjamas, suggesting they came straight to the hospital the moment they learnt he was willing to have visitors.

“Hello, little owl,” his mother says softly, smiling kindly at him. “Are you feeling better?”

“Yeah,” Kyungsoo says. His throat is still sore, which he’s since learnt is from the breathing tube that was inserted for the few days he was in the coma. It makes it a little difficult to hold conversations. “Hi,” he adds.

“ _Daddy_ ,” Jinsol says, even though she’s not called him that for a while now. Her eyes water, and she looks like she’s about to climb on the bed to join him when Kyungsoo’s father pulls her backwards.

“He’s still injured,” he says gently. Jinsol’s lip wobbles, but she lets him lead her to the chair closest to the bed.

“I was so scared,” Jinsol says. “You wouldn’t wake up. And, when I asked, Dad said it wasn’t something that could be fixed with True Love’s Kiss.”

Kyungsoo vaguely remembers that conversation, two years ago, when Jinsol had said that if a monster put him to sleep, she’d tell Chanyeol he loves him, so he could kiss him awake. Not for the first time, his chest aches.

“Where is he?” he asks, when everyone’s settled down in the guest chairs.

“He’s working,” his father says. “He stayed as long as he was able. I think he stayed until he was forced to leave each day. Joonmyun called him back for some kind of musical emergency, but he’s promised to let him come as soon as he’s able. He’s also promised that they will all come and see you.”

“That boy loves you so much,” Kyungsoo’s mother says, with a decisive nod of her head. “He may not realise it yet, but he does. He was distraught when we found him that first day. He was sitting outside in the waiting area and just crying. And when Jinsol asked if True Love’s Kiss would wake you up, he didn’t even twitch. He just said that he wished that kissing you would help.”

Kyungsoo’s heart hurts at her words, imagining Chanyeol, so bright and cheerful and _full of life_ , crying because of him. He suddenly gets the desperate need to see Chanyeol, to touch him. “I—” he tries, but a lump catches in his throat, and he quietens instantly.

The room is silent for a moment, until Jinsol reaches up to the table and grabs the ring box. She knows what are in it, having been with him when he bought them, but she still snaps open the lid to look at what’s inside. “Look, Granny,” she says, turning the box towards Kyungsoo’s mother. “Aren’t these nice?”

Kyungsoo’s mother takes one look at the rings and turns back to Kyungsoo. “Mister…” she begins.

“You didn’t tell us that you were going to do that,” his father says.

“You’re going to ask Chanyeol?” his mother asks. “To marry you?”

“Yeah,” Kyungsoo says. “You’ve all been talking so much about how gay marriage is now legal, that our relationship wouldn’t be so _weird_ anymore. So I just thought…maybe, maybe I should try. And this,” he waves around at the hospital room, “will always have a better outcome.”

“Don’t talk about that,” Kyungsoo’s mother says, her hands tightening on the arms of her chair. “Please.”

“I’m just trying to be rational,” Kyungsoo says. “I need…I need to make sure.”

“It makes sense,” his father says. “I understand.”

They don’t talk about it for the rest of the time they are there, not wanting to upset his mother any more, but Kyungsoo at least knows he has their approval. He has Chanyeol’s parents’, too. Kyungsoo has always been part of their family, and they’ve clearly been cheerleading whatever Kyungsoo and Chanyeol _have_ for some time now.

They leave when visiting hours end, Jinsol having to be dragged out, and promise to send Chanyeol tomorrow.

Kyungsoo’s heart beats loudly in his chest due to the anticipation of seeing Chanyeol. It’s time.

\---

Instead of making him do a full day of work, Joonmyun and Yoongi take pity on Chanyeol, who has been spending the past two days rearranging chord progressions with impatient clicks of his mouse, barely even using his headphones if he can get away with it, and then looking up at the clock. They send him on to Kyungsoo early.

“Go see him,” Joonmyun says, softly.

“I’ll take over for you,” Yoongi agrees. “Just make sure he’s okay.”

With their permission to leave work early, Chanyeol races to the hospital on foot, being careful to follow pedestrian guidelines despite his anxiousness to see Kyungsoo. He doesn’t want there to be any more problems, because that would be _stupid_ , and Kyungsoo would never forgive him for it.

When he finally reaches Kyungsoo’s room in the hospital, after an agonising twenty minute run, Chanyeol takes one look at Kyungsoo, lying in the bed, but, for the first time in days, _awake_ , and he starts crying. He slowly reaches out to take Kyungsoo’s good hand, not sure if Kyungsoo can feel the small squeeze he gives.

“Shh, baby,” Kyungsoo breathes. “It’s okay.”

Chanyeol recognises the tone, although not usually whispered, as the one Kyungsoo uses on Jinsol when she’s upset, and just cries harder. “You can’t use that voice on me,” he says through his sobs, trying not to hiccough. “You have no idea what it’s been like for me these past few days. I was so scared, Soo. I didn’t know if you were going to make it. Jinsol’s lost her mum, she couldn’t lose you, too. Not the same way. _I_ couldn’t lose you.”

“I’m still here,” Kyungsoo whispers. “I wasn’t going to leave you.” He squeezes back, and although it’s weak, it’s enough for Chanyeol.

“Good,” Chanyeol says. “I don’t want you to leave me. It’s been—” He sniffles, and restarts. “It was hard enough when you were away at the army. Jinsol wouldn’t listen to me, because her favourite dad wasn’t around. She only wanted you. But even though it’s been only a few days, this was—this was so bad. I could see you, but I couldn’t talk to you, or touch you, or hear you, or anything. It was horrible.” He rubs at his cheeks, tears still staining them, trying not to look at Kyungsoo. “They wouldn’t let me in here at first. I’m not _family_. They wouldn’t even let Jinsol in, even though she kept calling you Dad. It was really frustrating.”

“About that,” Kyungsoo begins, and then breaks off, trying to swallow. “Pass me the water.” He nods towards the bedside table, and Chanyeol leaps into action, letting go of Kyungsoo’s hand to grab the jug of purified tap water that is sitting there, and pouring it into the glass beside it. He holds it out for Kyungsoo, who takes it with a shaky hand. Chanyeol helps support it, and Kyungsoo drinks his fill.

It’s only when Chanyeol’s putting the glass back on the table that he notices the small black box, sitting on the edge of the table. It looks—it looks like a jewellery box. His mother has one like this for a particularly nice necklace that his father had given her for one of their wedding anniversaries.

But, this size—it looks more like a ring box.

Instead of waiting for Kyungsoo to continue what he was saying, Chanyeol finds himself asking, “What’s this?” reaching out to touch it. It must be important, or it wouldn’t be out, where Kyungsoo can see it.

“Open it,” Kyungsoo says. His voice, although no longer sounding sore, is still soft. There’s a wobble, almost like fear, but Kyungsoo stays looking at him.

So Chanyeol does, picking it up and gently lifting the lid up.

All sorts of things rushed through his mind, but two shiny, thin gold rings, simple and understated, were not quite what he is expecting. They are, very obviously, wedding bands. Chanyeol’s breath catches in his throat.

“I was worried, too,” Kyungsoo begins, “about what would happen if one of us were to get seriously injured, or sick. Hopefully this won’t happen again, but, before this even happened, I wanted some insurance. I need to know that if—” He stops, and swallows. Chanyeol can sympathise. He thinks there’s a lump in his throat, too. “—that if I were to die suddenly, that everything would go to who it’s _supposed_ to. I need to know there’s a procedure in place for our daughter.” His voice gets stronger, maybe because Chanyeol isn’t talking. “If you die early, and not saying you will, but _if you do_ , I don’t want Jinsol to have to go through what she had to when we took her in. I want it to be natural. It’d be horrible, of course it would, but I’d want it to be easy. This is—this is one of the best ways.”

Chanyeol traces a finger over one of the rings. “It probably is,” he breathes.

“I know this may not be…um, how you imagined this might go. I’m sorry. I’m probably not what you…” Kyungsoo doesn’t quite shrug, but the slight movement makes Chanyeol think he probably would if he could. “But still. What…what do you think?”

Chanyeol doesn’t know what he feels, so he tries to sort through it in his head.

He’d been so scared when he’d first received the call. He hadn’t known if Kyungsoo and Jinsol were even _alive_ , let alone alright. When he’d heard that Kyungsoo was in a coma, he’d almost broken down there and then, and had later.

Not being allowed in to see Kyungsoo was even worse. The fact that he, Kyungsoo’s closest friend, was not deemed significant enough to see his best friend, one of the two most important people in Chanyeol’s life, his daughter’s favourite father—it hurt, more than he could ever say. _Family_ is such an important word, especially when it comes to hospitals, and visiting hours. Not being considered family, when they’ve lived together for all these years, when Jinsol’s been their daughter for _years_ now, was one of the worst feelings in the world.

Kyungsoo means so much to Chanyeol. He and Jinsol—they _are_ Chanyeol’s world.

Sitting there, in that slightly uncomfortable chair in Kyungsoo’s hospital room, it hits him that he wouldn’t want to go through this life without Kyungsoo by his side every step of the way. Without seeing Kyungsoo every day. Without growing older with him. After all, didn’t he think, years ago when Kyungsoo first went off to the army, that there wasn’t another person he’d want to bring Jinsol up with? That he was grateful that, of all people, it was Kyungsoo?

He isn’t sure that he _loves_ Kyungsoo. He loves him, of course he does, but as his closest friend, as Jinsol’s other father. He loves him in the purest of platonic ways. He doesn’t yet know if he wants to be more.

And yet.

 _“You’re a lucky man. Kyungsoo’s a great guy,”_ he remembers.

 _“Was I helping you cheat?”_ and, _“He referred to this as ‘home’, so I know it’s not over.”_

 _“You’re our son’s other half,”_ he thinks. And later, _“You mean so much to Kyungsoo. We’re so happy that he’s found someone like you. He’s so lucky.”_

_“Baby.”_

He’d always considered himself to be straight, but the memories imply something else, something that has always been there. And, quite frankly, he does love Kyungsoo. He _is_ open to the idea of marrying Kyungsoo, of being with him, of cementing whatever they have permanently. If they’re together, _married_ , they’ll have a lot more time together to fall in love, the way people have always suggested. They’ll have their whole lives ahead of them. Why would Chanyeol ever need anyone but Kyungsoo?

It…it makes _sense_.

Instead of responding verbally to Kyungsoo’s non-proposal, Chanyeol picks up the larger of the two rings (they’re _sized differently_!) and, making sure Kyungsoo can see him, slides it onto his ring finger decidedly.

This time, it’s Kyungsoo who starts crying.


	2. Epilogue

They both, unanimously, decide that a date as close to Kyungsoo being released from the hospital as possible would be best.

They also agree that they don’t want an actual _wedding_. Just their parents, Jinsol (in a _very_ pretty lavender dress), the officiator. That’s enough. They’ll apologise to their friends later.

It isn’t much different, after Kyungsoo’s out of hospital, even with the gold bands on their fingers signalling something new, something different. Maybe Chanyeol holds Kyungsoo’s hand more, or gives in to the feeling to kiss him on the forehead more often than before. Maybe Kyungsoo touches him more softly, Chanyeol doesn’t quite know.

Chanyeol doesn’t think about _kisses_ until they’re standing in front of the officiator, who seems remarkably accepting of same-sex marriages.

“Do Kyungsoo, do you take Park Chanyeol as your lawfully wedded husband?”

“I do,” Kyungsoo says.

Chanyeol swallows.

“Park Chanyeol, do you take Do Kyungsoo as your lawfully wedded husband?”

This is really happening. He knew it was happening when they went to register with their marriage forms the previous day, but…this is _happening_. _Now_.

Chanyeol gives a little cough to clear his throat. “I do,” he says.

“I now pronounce you husbands.” And then the shocker—“You may now kiss.”

Chanyeol blinks at Kyungsoo, who smiles softly and reaches up with his good arm to pull him down towards him. It’s gentle, just a press of lips against the corner of Chanyeol’s mouth. Kyungsoo’s mother, who has been crying the entire time, almost lets out a sob. Chanyeol finds himself breaking into a smile when Kyungsoo pulls away.

The rest of the day is a whirlwind. After signing the rest of the paperwork with their mothers as witnesses, they go out for a meal with their parents, treating them to beef. Jinsol, who has suddenly gained a bottomless pit for a stomach (Kyungsoo claims she gets it from Chanyeol), eats so much that she ends up half draped over Chanyeol’s lap.

“Sit up, Jinsol, we’re in public,” Kyungsoo scolds, because Chanyeol won’t.

“Yes, Dad,” she grumbles. She sits up, obediently, and then proceeds to lean against Chanyeol’s side. He doesn’t stop her, instead wrapping an arm around her and holding her close. _His husband_ (he doesn’t know when he’s going to get used to that) tuts, but when Chanyeol turns to look at him, he’s smiling softly. Chanyeol hears the click of a camera, probably his mother, but doesn’t bother looking at it. Let them have their fun.

Later that night, after Jinsol’s in bed, Chanyeol finds himself just gazing in the direction of Kyungsoo’s mouth as he talks about— _something_ , Chanyeol’s not actually listening.

“C’mere,” he breathes, reaching out a hand to Kyungsoo.

“What do you want?” Kyungsoo asks, sounding put-out that he’s been interrupted. He walks close enough that Chanyeol can touch him anyway.

“To try something,” Chanyeol says. He still doesn’t _love_ Kyungsoo—there’s not been enough time for that, now he’s started thinking about his feelings in this way, even though he feels more like it might be happening—but ever since that non-kiss, he’s just _wanted_.

Chanyeol touches Kyungsoo gently around the back of his head, pulling him even closer. Kyungsoo goes willingly. Sometimes Chanyeol wonders if Kyungsoo, always so strangely pliant around him, does it just because it’s _Chanyeol_. He wonders if there is something he should have seen a long time ago—everyone else seems to have seen it, Kyungsoo’s affection for him. Once again, he remembers, _“You mean so much to Kyungsoo.”_

But he doesn’t dwell on it. Instead, he leans in, so there’s just a few centimetres of difference between them.

“Is this okay?” Chanyeol whispers.

Kyungsoo groans, too loud in the quiet of their home, and yanks on the front of Chanyeol’s shirt. Chanyeol jerks forward, and Kyungsoo catches him with his mouth.

It’s easy to tell that Kyungsoo doesn’t have much experience, but that doesn’t make the kiss bad. Instead, it’s gentle and comforting. Kyungsoo’s lips are soft from all the chapstick he’s been using recently, and warm, too. Chanyeol feels like he’s coming home. This is _right_.

When they separate, Kyungsoo asks, “Why?”

Chanyeol shrugs. “I wanted to,” he says.

“Oh,” Kyungsoo says. “Okay.” He smiles so softly, so warmly, so _affectionately_ , that Chanyeol wants to feel it against his own mouth.

So he does.

**Author's Note:**

> As Kyungsoo goes to the military after he finishes university, he should technically do twenty-four to twenty-six months of service (depending on the department; e.g. public service is longer). However, I let the rules slide a little and gave him the usual service time for a young man who goes into active service after his second year of university (twenty-one months), just so he’d be back sooner.
> 
> I get asked a lot for sequels. I'm not terribly reliable generally, but there is so much more of this story I want to tell, and I have already started writing scenes. I can't guarantee it will be an actual fic; it may be additional chapters added to the end of this one. But there WILL be more of this fic, of this world, if people still want it.
> 
> You can tweet me at @shippaipentagon. :) (Sadly, this fic has no PENTAGON in it. :()


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